Scientists at the University of Manchester in the UK found that people with mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, are five times more likely to die from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and three times more likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19. This is reported in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
The researchers analyzed data from studies of 1,925 people with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, 1,483 people with bipolar disorder, and 41,448 people with depressive disorder. In total, 16,282 people tested positive for COVID-19, 2,885 were hospitalized and 1,081 died.
It turned out that for people with psychotic disorders, the risk of dying from COVID-19 was 4.84 times higher than for people without severe mental illness. The risk of death from COVID-19 was 3.76 higher in people with bipolar disorder and 1.99 higher in people with depressive disorder. Among people with COVID-19 and those with psychotic or bipolar disorders, hospital admissions were 35.8 percent and 37.3 percent, respectively, compared with 16.6 percent among people without severe mental illness.
Among COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized, more than half of people with psychotic disorders – 52.6 percent – have died, compared with 37.5 percent among those without serious mental illness.
