THURSDAY, Jan 28, 2021 (HealthDay News) – Schizophrenia ranks second after age when it comes to risk factors for dying from COVID-19.
It is known that people with this mental illness are at higher risk of developing COVID-19. However, the new study shows that they are also more likely to die from this virus.
“Age is still the most important risk factor for dying from COVID-19, but in our study schizophrenia even outperformed heart, lung and kidney diseases,” said study author Dr. Donald Goff, director of the Institute for Psychiatric Research at NYU Langone in New York City.
“We believe that people with schizophrenia are a priority when it comes to getting COVID 19 vaccinations and should be encouraged to follow safety precautions,” said Goff, who is also a professor of psychiatry at NYU Langone.
Symptoms of schizophrenia include hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking. The disease often doesn’t appear until their late teens to early 30s, and people with schizophrenia die earlier than people without schizophrenia, according to the US National Institute of Mental Health.
In the study, people with schizophrenia were almost three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than people without the disease, even when researchers considered other factors that affect the risk of death from COVID.
“The higher risk was expected, but the magnitude was unexpected,” said Goff.
And the increased likelihood of dying is not tied to risks known to be associated with mental illness, such as: B. higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and smoking.
“The disease may have immunodeficiencies linked to it, which could be genetics-related,” said Goff.
Alternatively, some of the drugs that treat schizophrenia cause weight gain and an increased risk of diabetes and could play a role, he explained. The next step is to investigate whether these drugs affect the likelihood of dying from COVID-19, he said.
Goff and colleagues reviewed the medical records of nearly 7,350 men and women treated for COVID-19 in New York in March, April and May. Of these, 14% were diagnosed with schizophrenia, mood disorders, or anxiety, but only those with schizophrenia were more likely to die of COVID once infected.
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