Delirious mania: can we get away with this concept? A case report and review of the literature

Mania and hypomania associated with COVID-19: a series of 15 cases seen by the consultation-liaison psychiatry service in Qatar

Background: A range of neuropsychiatric diagnoses have been reported in association with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, only sporadic cases of mania or hypomania have been reported in patients with COVID-19. This study aimed to report clinical characteristics of 15 consecutive cases of COVID-19-associated mania or hypomania seen in three general hospitals in Qatar in the early months of the pandemic in 2020.

Methods: This study is a retrospective case-note review of 15 cases of COVID-19-associated mania or hypomania (confirmed by polymerase chain reaction test), seen as inpatient consultations out of the first 100 consecutive patients managed by consultation-liaison psychiatric teams in Qatar between 2 March 2020 and 7 July 2020.

Results: The mean age of the 15 patients was 40 years. Twelve patients had mania, and three had hypomania. Regarding the physical severity of COVID-19, 10 patients were asymptomatic, two had upper respiratory tract symptoms alone and three had pneumonia. None of the patients were intubated. Potential risk factors for mania/hypomania included pandemic-related psychosocial stress before admission (n = 9), past history of mania/bipolar disorder (n = 6) or psychosis (n = 2), raised inflammatory markers (n = 7) and steroid use (n = 3). None had a history of recent substance misuse. Other than one patient with advanced cancer, none had comorbidity regarded as likely to have caused mania or hypomania. Three patients had mild white matter ischaemic changes on brain imaging. Standard pharmacological treatment for mania (i.e. antipsychotic medication supplemented by prn benzodiazepines) was effective. Ten patients were discharged home from the COVID-19 facility where they presented, but five required transfer to Qatar's psychiatric hospital for further treatment of mania.

Conclusion: The association of mania or hypomania with COVID-19 may be spurious (e.g. representing an initial presentation of bipolar disorder) or causal. The reported cases illustrate a range of potential aetiological mechanisms by which COVID-19 could cause mania or hypomania. Cohort studies are necessary to determine the incidence, aetiology and prognosis of COVID-19-associated mania/hypomania.

Delirious mania in a patient with COVID-19 pneumonia

Delirious mania (the coexistence of delirium and mania) is described in the literature but not recognised in standard nosologies. We report a woman in her late 30s, with no psychiatric history, who presented with concurrent symptoms of mania and delirium. She was diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia (positive reverse transcription-PCR test). There was no history of substance misuse or concurrent medical illness. CT head scan was normal as were blood investigations, other than elevated inflammatory markers. She received standard treatment for COVID-19 pneumonia and lorazepam and quetiapine to treat her neuropsychiatric symptoms. She made a full recovery after 9 days. She was apyrexial with normal oxygen saturation throughout her illness. The case shows that severe neuropsychiatric symptoms can complicate otherwise mild COVID-19 pneumonia with neuroinflammation being a possible mechanism. A diagnosis of delirious mania appears to better capture the complexity of the presentation than a diagnosis of mania or delirium alone.

Delirium Research in India: A Systematic Review

Delirium is the most common psychiatric diagnoses encountered in patients with various medical-surgical illnesses, in all the treatment set-ups, with relatively higher incidence and prevalence in the intensive care units. As delirium is encountered in multiple specialties, it is important to understand the research on this diagnosis. This study aims to assess the research output involving patients of delirium from India. A comprehensive search was undertaken using Medline (PubMed) and other databases. Search words included were “delirium,” “delirious,” “delirium tremens” AND “India.” No filters were used. Internet and hand searches yielded 305 articles. Out of these articles, 151 had the terms “delirium,” “delirious,” “delirium tremens” in the title and these were included for the review. Additionally, 14 articles were included for the review, although these did not have these terms in the title, but delirium was one of the major outcome parameters in these studies. Majority of the papers were original articles ( n = 81), and these were followed by, case reports ( n = 58), review articles ( n = 10), letter to the editor (not as case reports but as a communication; n = 13), editorials ( n = 2) and one clinical practice guideline. Most of the original papers have either focused on epidemiology (incidence, prevalence, outcome, etc.), symptom profile, with occasional studies focusing on effectiveness of various pharmacological interventions. There is a dearth of research in the field of delirium from India. There is a lack of studies on biomarkers, evaluation of nonpharmacological interventions, and evaluation of prevention strategies. It is the need of the hour to carry out more studies to further our understanding of delirium in the Indian context.

Identification and management of "delirious mania:" A rare clinical entity

Little is known about the entity of delirious mania, apart from a few reports. Delirious mania, though a potentially lethal condition, has not found a place in the current classification system. We discuss the approach to the identification and management of delirious mania in a female patient presenting with catatonic and delirious features, with a past history of recurrent mood episodes. However, it must be emphasized that it is likely to be a rare clinical presentation of bipolar disorder and should not be the first diagnostic consideration. As a rule, any patient presenting with delirium or clouded consciousness first warrants a thorough medical workup and other specialty referrals.