Covid death risk higher for those with severe mental illness, new study shows
mental illness.
Severe mental illness was defined as the presence of at least one diagnostic record entry for schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, or other affective disorder with psychosis during the study period, the scientists detailed in their research published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Schizoaffective disorder is a mental illness marked by a combination of schizophrenia symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions, and mood disorder symptoms, such as depression or mania.
All participants were followed up for at least 12 months prior to the date of first recorded infection, or the index date, the researchers said. For some patients, this was as early as February 1, 2019.
Investigating the role of ethnicity in increasing the death risk because of COVID-19, the researchers found that Black Caribbean/Black African people were at a 22 per cent higher risk of death than White people.
This was similar for people with and without severe mental illness, even as ethnicity had not been recorded in around 30 per cent of the patient data, they said. Other ethnicity groups studied were a 'South Asian' group which included Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Asian 'Other' groups and a 'Mixed' ethnicity group.
«We are the first group to use the Clinical Practice Research Datalink to understand the impact of COVID-19 on premature morbidity among people with severe mental illness, making this one of the largest studies of its kind,» said Alex Dregan, the study's senior author and Senior Lecturer in psychiatric epidemiology at King's College.
