People with schizophrenia may face a higher risk for severe COVID-19, a new study suggested.
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 (odds ratio 2.67, 95% CI 1.48-4.80), reported Katlyn Nemani, MD, of New York University Langone Medical Center in New York, and colleagues.
This association was 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, they wrote in
However, people with other mood disorders (OR 1.14, 95% CI 0.87-1.49) or anxiety disorders (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.65-1.41) didn t see any increased risk of COVID-related mortality, according to the authors.