Schizophrenia is the second highest risk factor for death from Covid-19 after age

Schizophrenia may be one of the highest risk factors for death from Covid-19, second only to age, according to a new study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

In the new study, researchers looked at health records from 260 outpatient clinics and four hospitals across New York City, based on data published by New York University's electronic health records; Of the 26,540 patients tested (about 4,500 were excluded for various reasons), 7,348 adults tested positive for Covid-19. They then divided patients with reported mental disorders into three categories: schizophrenia, mood disorders, or anxiety disorders — and compared them to Covid-19 patients who had not been diagnosed with any mental disorders.

Of the more than 7,000 adults who tested positive for the coronavirus during that time, 75 had a history of schizophrenia; 564 had a history of mood disorders and 360 had a history of anxiety disorders. Of the Covid-19 patients, 864 died or were moved to their final resting places within 45 days of diagnosis.

While no association was found between anxiety or mood disorders and Covid-19 death, the researchers found that people with schizophrenia were about 2.7 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than people without that mental disorder.

People with schizophrenia are about 2.7 times more likely to die from Covid-19.

The comparison results showed that age is the highest risk factor for death from Covid-19. Specifically, patients aged 45 to 54 have a 3.9 times higher risk of death from Covid-19 than younger patients. Second is patients with a history of schizophrenia with a 2.7 times higher risk of death from Covid-19. Next are patients with heart failure: 1.65 times and diabetes: 1.28 times.

Why are mental health patients at higher risk of death from Covid-19?

" People with schizophrenia have an average life expectancy shortened by about 20 years; and many die earlier from pneumonia and viral illnesses, " said Dr. Donald Goff, professor of psychiatry at New York University (NYU) School of Medicine and lead author of the study .

However, the reduced life expectancy is thought to be due to other medical risk factors and conditions that often accompany schizophrenia, including obesity, heart disease, and smoking. In this study, people with schizophrenia still had a higher risk of death, even though the authors took note of these factors.

" It seems that there is something about schizophrenia or the medications that are used to treat it that puts people at higher risk of death," Goff added. " It's very possible that either the disease or the medications are disrupting the immune system ."

Schizophrenia or the medications used to treat it are thought to compromise the immune system.

Previous research has found that people with schizophrenia may have altered immune responses and variations in genes that regulate the body's immune response to infections.

" This is a very interesting study, especially regarding the role of the immune system ," said Norbert Müller, professor of psychiatry at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, who was not involved in the study.

' Some psychiatrists speculate that schizophrenia is linked to the activation of the immune system and pro-inflammatory signaling molecules called 'cytokines,'' the professor revealed. 'A common cause of death from Covid-19 is an overreaction of those 'cytokines,' also known as a 'cytokine storm,'' he said .

"Genes that guide and regulate the immune response may also play a role," Müller added. "However, the study was limited overall by the low number of schizophrenia patients, and also by the lack of data on the patients' antipsychotic medications (which the authors also mention) . "

Additionally, the data only includes patients treated in the NYU health care system. Furthermore, the data was collected during the height of New York City's outbreak, when the entire health care system was nearly overwhelmed and treatments were not as effective as they are now.

Dr. Donald Goff and his team are now conducting more research to find out if there are biological reasons why people with schizophrenia might be at higher risk. But for now, ' we think it's important to get people's attention that people with schizophrenia should be among the priority groups for the vaccine ,' Goff said.