People with mental disorders are the most likely to get coronavirus and die from it, says a new study published in Molecular Psychiatry.

They found that people with mental disorders are five times more likely to get sick and die from the coronavirus if they catch the virus.

The team used anonymized data from UKB, which contains health information and linked health records for half a million men and women who participated in a prospective cohort study from 2006 to 2010.

At the start of the study, UKB participants were 40–69 years old and lived within 10 miles of a UKB assessment center in England, Scotland, or Wales.

They were given extensive physical tests and structured interviews at the time of enrolling in order to offer information about their current and former lifestyle behaviors, as well as their physical and mental health.

The study included 1,925 people who had schizophrenia or other mental disorders, 1,483 people with bipolar disorder, and 41,448 people with depressive disorder.

Among them, 16,282 people had COVID-19, 2,885 were hospitalized, and 1,081 died.

In the end, it turned out that people with mental disorders had 4.84 times higher risk of dying from COVID-19 than people who did not have mental disorders.

People with bipolar disorder had a 3.76 higher chance of dying from COVID-19, whereas people with depression had a 1.99 higher risk.

It was also found that the percentage of hospitalizations among those with mental or bipolar disorders was 35.8 and 37.3 percent, respectively, compared to 16.6 percent among those who did not have such diseases.

Furthermore, the study also revealed that 52.6 percent of patients with psychotic disorders have died. This rate was 37.5 percent among people who did not have major mental disorder.

Source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01344-2

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