Psychogenic fever due to worry about COVID‐19: A case report

Psychogenic fever is stress‐related hyperthermia that is recognized as a psychosomatic condition. We treated a 46‐year‐old Japanese man who was worrying about the coronavirus infection (COVID‐19) and had a fever with a maximum temperature of 38.1℃. The patient was tested twice for SRAS‐CoV‐2 using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), but both tests were negative. All tests were negative for organic diseases, including infections, allergy/collagen diseases, endocrine disorders, malignancies, and drugs‐induced conditions. The more he doubted the COVID‐19 in him, the more he complained of the already known various symptoms, such as smelling disorder. The patient believed firmly that he had COVID‐19 because PCR can be false negative. Finally, the patient was treated with the anxiolytic, loflazepate, at 4 mg/day. This treatment was highly effective. The patient's serum IL‐6 was 1.1 pg/ml (≤4.0). The patient was diagnosed with psychogenic fever due to irrational worry over coronavirus. Such typical cases should be treated with an anxiolytic.