Acute psychosis after COVID vaccination - Post-December 10, 2020 suicides should be investigated
Unvaccinated patients have coyly mentioned that COVID-19 vaccination in some of their friends and family is driving some of them "crazy". I have always felt that the fear-driven ideology of vaccination overrides the common sense of some zealots, but the growing literature on neuropsychiatric symptoms is alarming. There are now about 10 articles describing headaches, fever, and a range of acute neuropsychiatric symptoms following vaccination with mRNA or by COVID-19 adenovirus. The strong bias of editors and publishers has meant that countless papers have not appeared in the mainstream medical media, so one has to search hard to find information on vaccine safety. Borovina et al. from Croatia described three cases of acute headache followed by psychosis.
All our patients complained of headache within five days after vaccination, also paresthesias and one of them experienced syncope. In two cases (mRNA vaccine and vector), neurological and psychotic symptoms started simultaneously, and in one case (mRNA vaccine), neurological symptoms preceded psychotic symptoms.
In all cases, neurologic examination and brain MRI/CT revealed no abnormalities. Headache, dizziness-These include dizziness, myalgia, and paresthesia are among the most common neurologic symptoms reported as effects of vaccination (Goss et al. 2021).
All three patients had to be hospitalized, where they underwent numerous diagnostic tests and medical treatments. In one of the cases, there was a suicide attempt with a stab wound to the abdomen, which required emergency abdominal surgery. As a physician, I am disturbed by medical tests that detect the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein encoded by the SARS-CoV-2 gene from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the human brain after vaccination. I wonder how many subtle changes go clinically unnoticed. Even if the number affected is small, the large number of reported cases makes any "rare" complication a common problem in clinical practice.
In summary, we should not downplay or attempt to normalize neuropsychiatric symptoms following vaccination with COVID-19. All cases should be taken seriously. Suicides after December 10, 2020, should be investigated and the brand, dose, and date of vaccination should be recorded by medical personnel and noted by family members.
Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH