MedPage Today (1/27, Monaco) reports, “People with schizophrenia may face a higher risk for severe COVID-19,” research indicates. When “compared with COVID-19 patients without a psychiatric disorder, those previously diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorder had more than a two times higher risk for mortality within 45 days of a confirmed case,” the study revealed. The association still remained “significant even after adjusting for medical risk factors including smoking status, hypertension, heart failure (HF), myocardial infarction, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer.” The findings were published online Jan. 27 in JAMA Psychiatry.
Psychiatric News (1/27) reports investigators arrived at these conclusions after analyzing “data from the electronic health records of 7,348 adults, aged 18 years or older, who tested positive for coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) between March 3 and May 31, 2020, in the NYU Langone Health System.” The study also revealed that “people with mood and anxiety disorders were not at a greater risk of mortality from COVID-19 compared with people without these disorders.”
Related Links:
— “Patients With Schizophrenia Have More Than Twice the Risk of Death Related to COVID-19, Psychiatric News, January 27, 2021