Julie Krasnick
Pronouns: She/her
Research Mentor(s): Lindsay Bornheimer
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: / Social Work
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 1 – 10am – 10:50am
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Julie Krasnick, Lindsay Bornheimer, Juliann Li Verdugo
Presenter: 23
Abstract
Background: Suicide is among the leading causes of death for adults with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, with a suicide rate estimated to be more than eight times that of the general population. Our overarching goals are to understand and prevent suicide. By understanding, we mean engaging in studies to examine risk and protection, and by prevention, we mean developing and testing behavioral suicide prevention treatments. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, our nation has faced a mental health crisis, with greater challenges being faced by clients and providers. Previous research conducted by our team explored provider challenges in late 2020, with a particular focus on experiences of engagement with clients virtually, suicide risk assessment, and treatment of psychosis during the pandemic. Additionally, ongoing research focuses on evidence-based interventions to prevent suicide among individuals with psychosis. Now, with rates of suicide among those with psychosis being disproportionately high and increasing amounts of case study reports on new-onset psychosis following diagnosis of COVID-19, more research is needed on the impact of COVID-19 on symptoms, psychosis, suicidal ideation/behaviors/risk; this time taking a newer angle and interviewing caregivers. Methods: Aside from other ongoing suicide prevention projects being conducted by our team, we will be conducting a mixed methods study in the summer of 2022 which will involve interviewing family members and looking at medical charts for people who have died by suicide after contracting COVID-19. To prepare for this study an initial search of the current findings of COVID-19 and psychosis was done. Data were obtained from various literature searches on multiple databases to find systematic reviews and case studies (n = 17) regarding post-COVID-19 psychosis and suicide, using specific keywords, including “psychosisâ€, “COVID-19â€, “depressionâ€, “suicideâ€, “new-onset psychosisâ€, “schizophreniaâ€, “sympotoms of psychosisâ€, “psycho-social impactâ€, “biologicalâ€, “SARSâ€, “inflammatoryâ€, and “delirium†to find pre-existing information. Results: Data was collected from 17 unique case studies reported since 2020 on COVID-19, psychosis, and suicide. Findings indicated that in 94.12% of cases reviewed (n = 16), individuals presented psychosis and/or symptoms of psychosis following a COVID-19 infection. In 17.65% of cases reviewed (n = 3), the individual died by suicide following a COVID-19 infection. Of those who died by suicide, one of them reported presentation of psychosis while the others are unknown. In 29.41% of cases (n = 5) individuals were reported with presentation of psychosis and a serious suicide attempt following a COVID-19 infection. In 5.88% of the case studies reviewed (n = 1) presentation of psychosis and self harm following a COVID-19 infection is present among three different individuals. Additional findings from literature searches (on systematic reviews) regarding post-COVID-19 psychosis revealed that new-onset psychotic symptoms have been described in patients infected by previous coronaviruses, such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, post-COVID-19 psychosis show up in both asymptomatic and symptomatic patients, and the elevated inflammatory markers, particularly CRP, that appeared in patients with previous COVID-19 infection may suggest immunological mechanisms as the cause of these neuropsychiatric symptoms. Limitations: It is essential to recognize the limitations of our current findings. Given the possibility for some COVID-19-infected individuals to be symptomatic or asymptomatic, there does not seem to be specific symptoms that correlate to the new-onset psychosis symptoms. Additionally, our study is limited to those who tested positive for COVID-19 and in some cases received treatment. Discussion: Considering the mental health crisis our entire nation is currently facing and the high amount of cases reporting symptoms of psychosis, self-harm, suicide attempt, and suicide following COVID-19 infection, we hope to find what information already exists on COVID-19, psychosis, and suicide, so that we can fill in the gaps in knowledge with our mixed methods study. Our findings show undetermined, yet possible causes for these psychotic symptoms which yield important implications for the future COVID-19 mixed methods study as it highlights critical limitations found in previous research and can aid in directing areas of future research in order to produce the most thorough study representative of the entire population at hand. As a result of this study we are actively developing a project for this summer that will explore COVID-19 and psychosis in more depth.
Biomedical Sciences, Social Sciences
