ABOUT THE DELIRIUM OF CORONAVIRUS SELF-CONTEMPT

Based on observations from forensic psychiatric practice and the review of the literature, we describe for the first time the delirium of the "coronavirus (self)contempt". An elderly patient after coming through COVID-19 infection began to consider himself and his wife a distributor of the coronavirus infection, constituting himself a danger to the public. Against the background of feeling of impending doom, he felt the sense of disgrace, shame and self-contempt for himself and expected a negative attitude from others, including discrimination, so he was ready to commit suicide. Under the influence of these delusional ideas, he tried to kill his wife and himself, but by a lucky chance all the defendants in the case remained alive. The forensic psychiatric examination recognized him insane. Delirium of the coronavirus (self)contempt is a sensual delusion that develops against the background of a severe stress (or depression), by the conditions of formation (character, experience, environment) it resembles sensitive reference delusion. The paper discusses the involvement of self-stigmatization (stigma and discrimination) phenomena, the influence of COVID-19 on the development and pathoplasty of delusional (super-valuable) ideas in this psychopathological phenomenon.