The mental effects of Brexit are now coming to light. Photo / Getty Images
The mental effects of Brexit are now coming to light. Photo / Getty Images
The effects of Brexit are seemingly more real than ever now that the first person has been diagnosed with Brexit-induced psychosis.
An article published in The British Medical Journal (BMJ) says that following the EU referendum announcement in mid 2016, the man in his 40s experienced hallucinations and his mental state worsened rapidly.
The Telegraph reports that he was exceptionally concerned about racial episodes and felt humiliated to be British, he confessed after being placed in a psychiatric ward.
The patient's doctor, Mohammad Zia Ul Haq Katshu, said in an article published in BMJ Case Reports: "His wife reported that since the EU referendum results were declared on 24 June 2016, he started spending more time putting his thoughts across on social media.
"He found it difficult to reconcile with the political events happening around him. He became increasingly worried about racial incidents. His sleep deteriorated."
In hospital, the individual tried to "burrow" down the hospital floor so he could "get the hell out of this place".
The patient believed spies were watching him and that commentators on broadcast radio were speaking directly to him.
At one point he said: "I was looking at the electoral map of voting for the EU. I am in a constituency that reflects an opinion that is not for me."
In the article, Dr Katshu confirmed that political events have the potential to be "major psychological stressors".
The Telegraph reports previous studies proved that worries regarding the political climate in the US after the 2016 presidential elections, as well as Brexit, were both large sources of stress.
Dr Katshu explained the man's "Mental health had deteriorated rapidly following the announcement of the results, with significant concerns about Brexit."
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed that Britain will leave the European Union on the scheduled date of October 31. Photo / AP
"He presented as agitated, confused and thought disordered. He had auditory hallucinations, and paranoid, referential, misidentification and bizarre delusions."
Factors of family pressure and work-related stress were also potentially responsible for causing the illness.
In a world-first, understood to be brought on by Brexit, the man was officially diagnosed with acute schizophrenia-like psychotic disorder, a category of acute and transient psychotic disorder (ATPD), reports The Telegraph.
The disorder typically brings on symptoms intensely, with an expected recovery time of around three months.
The patient said he had, "intense periods of accelerated thinking, of being distracted and consumed by my own thoughts, and of a series of theatrical episodes of which I am at the centre", writes the Telegraph.
Within two weeks he had recovered with assistance from anti-psychotic medication.
