Citation

Jayakumar A, Sanchez-Cerezo J, Khayam A, Spreeuwenberg B, Hodes M. BJPsych Bull 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Royal College of Psychiatrists)

DOI

10.1192/bjb.2022.32

PMID

35747939

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020 has had massive mental health consequences worldwide. It has caused generalised fear and anxiety about catching, spreading and suffering from the virus. This article describes a fictionalised patient's presentation of life-threatening obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) associated with fears of catching COVID-19. The fears resulted in refusal to eat and drink, with subsequent weight loss that required paediatric admission. The scenario portrays the association between COVID-19 and life-threatening OCD symptoms and goes on to illustrate the patient's good response to standard OCD treatments.

Language: en

Keywords

COVID-19; children and adolescents; exposure response prevention; in-patient treatment; obsessive–compulsive disorder