Psychosis after cerebral malaria in children.

A self-limiting psychosis characterized by visual and auditory hallucinations with or without aggressive behavior developed in two children 4 to 5 days after complete recovery from a cerebral malaria coma. Both patients had no family history of psychosis and were neurologically and mentally normal before the acute disease. A long-term prospective study to define the precise clinical spectrum of such manifestations in survivors of childhood cerebral malaria seems necessary.