Falciparum malaria in a person with unspecified psychosis: a case report
Abstract
In 2023 alone, there were an estimated 263 million malaria cases worldwide, with 597,000 deaths. Studies suggest that malaria, especially cerebral malaria, can cause neuropsychiatric complications such as paranoid syndromes, mania, and hallucinations. Understanding the mechanism is still a big task for clinicians. We report a case of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in a 37-year-old female patient with a diagnosis of unspecified psychosis (F29) at a tertiary care psychiatric institute. The patient was initiated on antipsychotic medications and was well monitored under high observation, and later was sent to another tertiary care hospital for treatment of malaria. The case highlights the challenges of diagnosing and managing malaria in psychiatric patients due to overlapping symptoms such as hallucinations, mania, and agitation.
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BibTeX
@article{ahmed2026falciparum,
title = {{Falciparum malaria in a person with unspecified psychosis: a case report}},
author = {Iftikhar Ahmed and Jitu Mani Kalita and Jenifa Saberin},
journal = {Microbiologia Medica},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.4081/mm.2026.14761},
url = {https://doi.org/10.4081/mm.2026.14761},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Falciparum malaria in a person with unspecified psychosis: a case report
AU - Iftikhar Ahmed
AU - Jitu Mani Kalita
AU - Jenifa Saberin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/24
JO - Microbiologia Medica
DO - 10.4081/mm.2026.14761
UR - https://doi.org/10.4081/mm.2026.14761
AB - In 2023 alone, there were an estimated 263 million malaria cases worldwide, with 597,000 deaths. Studies suggest that malaria, especially cerebral malaria, can cause neuropsychiatric complications such as paranoid syndromes, mania, and hallucinations. Understanding the mechanism is still a big task for clinicians. We report a case of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in a 37-year-old female patient with a diagnosis of unspecified psychosis (F29) at a tertiary care psychiatric institute. The patient was initiated on antipsychotic medications and was well monitored under high observation, and later was sent to another tertiary care hospital for treatment of malaria. The case highlights the challenges of diagnosing and managing malaria in psychiatric patients due to overlapping symptoms such as hallucinations, mania, and agitation.
SN - 2280-6423
ER -