Effect of acute depression associated with COVID-19 infection on health-seeking behaviour: a psychiatrist’s personal account and case report

TY - JOUR

T1 - Effect of acute depression associated with COVID-19 infection on health-seeking behaviour

T2 - a psychiatrist’s personal account and case report

AU - Müller, Monika

AU - Broadhead, Jeremy

AU - Simpson, Thomas

AU - Abas, Melanie A.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

PY - 2022/7/30

Y1 - 2022/7/30

N2 - Background Despite the abundant research on COVID-19-related mental health problems, little attention has been paid to acute depression occurring concurrently with the infection as a neuropsychiatric manifestation. This is important because depression is known to adversely affect help-seeking. Decreased help-seeking is likely to be aggravated by the isolation measures demanded as part of fighting the pandemic, given the disruption of social support networks. Aims To study the effects of acute depression associated with COVID-19 infection on help-seeking behaviour. Method We present a case report and personal account of a patient psychiatrist who developed a first onset of acute depression as part of COVID-19 infection. Results Despite being a mental health expert the patient lacked insight into his mood change and its negative effect on help-seeking behaviour, resulting in reliance on a family caregiver to raise the alarm. Conclusions For those experiencing this complex interaction between COVID-19 infection and the brain, social support will be needed to ensure timely presentation to the healthcare system. Greater attention to behavioural change as part of COVID-19 infection is needed to optimise treatment outcome.

AB - Background Despite the abundant research on COVID-19-related mental health problems, little attention has been paid to acute depression occurring concurrently with the infection as a neuropsychiatric manifestation. This is important because depression is known to adversely affect help-seeking. Decreased help-seeking is likely to be aggravated by the isolation measures demanded as part of fighting the pandemic, given the disruption of social support networks. Aims To study the effects of acute depression associated with COVID-19 infection on help-seeking behaviour. Method We present a case report and personal account of a patient psychiatrist who developed a first onset of acute depression as part of COVID-19 infection. Results Despite being a mental health expert the patient lacked insight into his mood change and its negative effect on help-seeking behaviour, resulting in reliance on a family caregiver to raise the alarm. Conclusions For those experiencing this complex interaction between COVID-19 infection and the brain, social support will be needed to ensure timely presentation to the healthcare system. Greater attention to behavioural change as part of COVID-19 infection is needed to optimise treatment outcome.

KW - case report

KW - COVID-19

KW - depression

KW - Neuropsychiatry

KW - personal account

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134015381&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1192/bjo.2022.521

DO - 10.1192/bjo.2022.521

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85134015381

SN - 2056-4724

VL - 8

JO - BJPsych Open

JF - BJPsych Open

IS - 4

M1 - e119

ER -