Psychosis in dengue fever

Abstract

An 18-year-old male student developed abnormal behavior while undergoing treatment for dengue fever. He was ill-kempt, irritable and had auditory and visual hallucinations and vague persecutory delusions in clear sensorium with impaired insight. The psychotic episode had a temporal correlation with dengue fever. Psychiatric comorbidities of dengue fever including mania, anxiety, depression, and catatonia are mentioned in literature but the literature on the psychosis following dengue is sparse and only two cases have been reported. Patients presenting with acute onset of psychosis along with fever should be screened for dengue fever in areas where dengue is endemic.

Keywords

• Auditory hallucinations
• dengue fever
• persecutory delusions
• psychosis
• visual hallucinations