Page 68 - Coespu 2020-2
P. 68
MEDICAL
CAN CORONAVIRUSES
PRODUCE PSYCHIATRIC SYNDROMES?
atypical pneumonia in Wuhan, to infect CNS, causing neurop-
Coronaviruses and other similar China, which were subsequent- sychiatric syndromes affecting
infections in our brain: they can ly identifi ed as being caused by cognitive, affective, behaviou-
produce psychiatric sindromes?
a novel coronavirus termed se- ral, and perceptual domains.
vere acute respiratory syndro- As the pandemic of the disease has
me coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). spread, there has been a growing
There is the common idea that recognition of the psychiatric impli-
By Davide Perego the fi rst target of these viruses cations of the disease. In the me-
is the respiratory tract, althou- antime the wider social impact of
Coronaviruses are single-stran- gh COVID-19 showed pleiotro- the pandemic and the governmen-
ded RNA viruses. They belong to pic effects, example dermatolo- tal response, including physical di-
a large family of respiratory viru- gic and vascular damages. It is stancing measures and quarantine,
ses that can cause mild to mode- interesting take into considera- has interested all the people inde-
rate illnesses from the common tion also, eventually psychiatric pendent of the age and the status.
cold disease to respiratory syn- and neuropsychiatric effects of Both the infected and non-in-
dromes. In the past we known SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. fected population might be su-
the effects of this type of viruses sceptible as a result of pande-
with severe acute respiratory syn- Coronaviruses have also been mic period, such as widespread
drome (SARS), starting in 2002, detected in both the brain and anxiety, social isolation, stress in
and Middle East respiratory syn- the cerebrospinal fl uid of indivi- health-care workers and other
drome (MERS), starting in 2012. duals with seizures, encephalitis, essential workers, and unemploy-
On Dec 31, 2019, WHO was and encephalomyelitis. In ge- ment and fi nancial diffi culties.
made aware of several cases of neral viral infections are known But over general effects, expe-
68
