People With Schizophrenia Show 5 Time Higher Mortality Rate From COVID-19 - Report

People With Schizophrenia Show 5 Time Higher Mortality Rate From COVID-19 - Report

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th December, 2021) People diagnosed with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia are five times more likely to die from COVID-19 and three times more likely to be hospitalized, according to a University of Manchester study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

"People with psychotic disorders showed 4.84 times higher odds of dying from COVID-19, compared to those without severe mental illness. The odds of dying from COVID-19 were 3.76 higher in people with bipolar disorder and 1.99 higher in people with major depressive disorder," the study said.

The research also found that COVID-19 patients with psychotic or bipolar disorders had the highest hospitalization rates with 35.8% and 37.3%, respectively, compared to 16.6% among individuals without severe mental illness.

Moreover, among those hospitalized with COVID-19, more than half (52.6%) of patients with psychotic disorders died, versus 37.5% of those who did not have severe mental illness.

The researchers analyzed the sample data of nearly 500,000 volunteer participants of the UK Biobank, which is a large-scale biomedical database and research resource containing genetic, lifestyle and health information.

Of the individuals included in the study, 1,925 had a recorded history of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, 1,483 had bipolar disorder, and 41,448 had major depressive disorder. Their data was compared with data from 402,440 Biobank participants who did not have an indicated history of these conditions.

Study participants were tracked from January 31, 2020, when the UK registered its first COVID-related death, to February 28, 2021. A total of 16,282 people tested positive for COVID-19, with 2,885 hospitalized and 1,081 dead.

A majority of Biobank participants are over 65 years old and white, but the researchers are confident the study findings are relevant to all groups of people, though some correlation to age, gender, preexisting conditions, and ethnic groups should be taken into account.