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Neurobehavioral impairment associated with COVID-19 infection has been recently documented in the literature. COVID-19 infection has also been associated with an increased risk for developing psychiatric symptoms, including rare reports on psychosis. We report a case of a 46-year-old male with no significant medical, family, and psychiatric history admitted to the hospital with COVID-19-related psychosis. Possible contributory factors for his condition are discussed, including the relationship between infections and the brain circuitry, inadvertent iatrogenic effects of pharmaceuticals used to manage COVID-19, as well as diathesis-stress associated with the tribulation of the prevailing pandemic.

Recent research has shown that the prevalence of stroke incidents and the number of survivors in developing countries surpass those from developed countries. This study aimed to enumerate the prevalence of post-stroke psychiatric and cognitive symptoms among stroke survivors from West and South Asia and Africa through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Data from each country was systematically acquired from five major databases (PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed/Medline, and Google Scholar (for any missing articles and grey literature)). Meta-analytic techniques were then used to estimate the prevalence of various post-stoke psychiatric and cognitive symptoms. A total of 36 articles were accrued from 11 countries, of which 25 were evaluated as part of the meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of post-stroke depression as per the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire, Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN), Geriatric Depression Scale, and the Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale ranged from 28.00 to 50.24%. Pooled prevalence of post-stroke anxiety based on the HADS and SCAN was 44.19% and 10.96%, respectively. The pooled prevalence of post-stroke cognitive impairment as per the Mini-Mental Status Examination was 16.76%. This present review has suggested that both psychiatric and cognitive symptoms are common among stroke survivors. Concerted efforts are needed to institute robust studies using culturally sensitive measures to contemplate mechanisms that address the unmet needs of this vulnerable population.

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) have been presented as alternative sources of cells to be transplanted into the brain in neurodegenerative disorders. In this regard, the efficacy of hMSCs transplants in reducing motor and non-motor deficits in a quinolinic acid (QA) rat model of Huntington's disease (HD) was tested in the present study. After unilateral lesions in striatum by QA, the isolated and purified hMSCs from liposuction of healthy male donors were transplanted into the damaged striatum of the rats. The cells were stably transfected with a vector containing TurboGFP and JRed to make it possible to trace them after transplantation. Animals were tested by motor and non-motor function tests at different times after the cell transplantation. The hMSCs survived 7 weeks in the brains. An improvement was observed in behavioral tests such as apomophine-induced rotation, hanging wire, and rotarod for the hMSC-treated rats. Anxiety like behaviors were decreased in hMSCs-treated animals when they were examined using open field, elevated plus maze, light and dark box, and novelty suppressed feeding tests. Compared to QA, the hMSCs treatment decreased motor activities. These results confirmed the potential efficacy of hMSCs in treatment of behavioral defects in HD. Generally, the data demonstrated that xenologous transplantation of hMSCs could be considered as an ideal candidate for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, especially HD.