What Is COVID Psychosis? Rare Condition May Have Led To Disappearance Of 23-Year-Old Woman

The parents of a young California woman, who went missing while on her way back home from work, believe COVID-related psychosis may have been a contributing factor in her disappearance.

Hadyne Wilson, 23, disappeared without a trace after leaving her workplace at Chatsworth on the evening of Sept. 29. Worried, as they didn't hear from Wilson for days, her friends plastered the area nearby her home with missing flyers.

After two weeks of frantic search involving law enforcement and volunteers, a Los Angeles-based non-profit, Lighthouse, declared on Oct. 12 that Wilson was with them, undergoing treatment, according to the Santa Monica Observer.

Wilson had dealt with a rather long bout of COVID-19 in January, which caused her psychotic symptoms as those of a schizophrenia patient, the Los Angeles Times reported. The media outlet noted Wilson's disappearance follows a similar incident in January when she briefly vanished due to a complete memory blackout as a result of the psychosis.

In an interview with ABC 7, her father, Darren, said Hadyne didn't have a history of mental health problems, and it was only after she contracted COVID-19 that she was diagnosed with the extremely rare phenomenon of COVID psychosis with symptoms ranging from paranoia, hallucinations, to hearing voices.

"There were long periods of time that she couldn't account for," he said.

Darren said his daughter's colleagues informed him she was acting unusual on the day of her disappearance. "Her co-workers said they noticed that she was a little off. She didn't complete tasks she usually completes," he told the outlet.

Hadyne is currently being cared for at Behavioral Health Center in Rosemead where doctors are trying to determine what role COVID psychosis played in her enduring ordeal.

A New York Times article referred to a few cases where people from in their 30s, 40s, and 50s have encountered mental health issues during COVID-19 despite having no history of psychological illness. Initially, doctors believed it was due to long ICU stays, but later concluded the symptoms are a result of brain inflammation caused by the disease.

"It is suspected that this inflammation of the blood vessels also includes inflammation of the brain and nervous system," Dr. Brittany Busse, M.D., associate medical director at WorkCare, told Prevention.

Dr. Dolores Malaspina, M.D., M.S., professor of psychiatry and director of the psychosis program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York doubled down on the claims, saying: "The current notion is that a number of psychiatric conditions are inflammation of brain cells. ... COVID brings home the mind-body connection, showing that psychiatric disorders are biologically driven as much as physical disorders."