COVID-19 represents a major challenge in the field of psychiatry, as both the virus and the medications used to treat it may induce neurologic and psychiatric symptoms. Antiretroviral drugs used for the treatment of COVID-19 may produce undesirable effects on the central and peripheral nervous systems. Cytochrome p450 enzymes are affected by protease inhibitors which could lead to neurotoxicity by altering plasma concentrations of multiple psychotropic drugs. Short course high-dose corticosteroid treatment, in COVID-19, may cause delirium and changes in mood (with a frequency of up to 52% of patients treated with more than 20 mg a day of prednisone during 3 months), mania and hypomania, and depression.
