COVID-19 vaccination programs are distributed worldwide. At the same time, scientists are still working hard to identify the groups of people who are most at risk of getting the disease or dying with it – people in need of emergency can get the previously expected immunizations. give long.
Now, a new study of nearly 7,400 people in New York, which tested positive for COVID-19, has found that the numbers of people diagnosed with schizophrenia die from COVID -19 nearly three times higher than those without the disorder.
He suggests that there may be something about schizophrenia that makes these people more vulnerable to viral infections, although the positive decisions may just be a reflection of health care inequalities. the pandemic is emerging.
“Our findings show that people with schizophrenia are highly vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19,” said psychologist Katlyn Nemani of New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center.
“With this new understanding, healthcare providers can prioritize the distribution of vaccines, testing and medical care to this group,” she said.
In the study, Nemani and her colleagues compared how people were treated for COVID-19 in New York at the height of the region’s pandemic coronavirus infection 45 days after a positive test.
Scraping medical records from NYU Langone’s health system, which includes four hospitals, the team identified 7,350 adults who had tested positive for COVID-19 between March and May 2020, 75 of whom had schizophrenia. to prove.
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects a person ‘s perception of reality and affects their feeling.
But it is worth noting here that schizophrenia is an enigmatic disease that scientists are still trying to understand, and this study only considered people with a recorded history of the disorder.
The number of people with schizophrenia in the study was also not very large, although the overall sample size was broad and diverse.
People with mood disorders such as anxiety also showed up, but the analysis found that these people were not at greater risk of dying from COVID-19, even though previous studies have found that people with mental illnesses are more likely to more likely to become infected.
The numbers of people with schizophrenia dying from COVID-19 were quite staggering: they were found to be 2.67 times more likely to die from coronavirus than people without schizophrenia.
The result means schizophrenia is considered the second highest risk factor (after age) for death by COVID-19 in this group of New Yorkers, after the authors of the study described other variables, such as age, gender, ethnicity, diabetes, heart disease, and smoking (but not medication use or obesity).
“This is a frightening discovery,” said Tom Pollak, a psychologist at King’s College London, who was not involved in the study.
“These patients are already among the most vulnerable members of society and appear to be unprotected by most health care systems worldwide.”
One possible explanation, suggested by the study’s authors, is that schizophrenia disrupts the body’s immune system – it is overloaded by inflammatory cytokines – it could make these people more vulnerable to COVID-19 infections.
But some researchers who were not involved in the study make interpretations more cautious, saying that the perceived difference is more likely to be explained by lifestyle factors and comorbidities, such as obesity, common among people with schizophrenia.
Even without COVID-19, people with schizophrenia often have poor physical health, and it has long been known that this translates into a higher likelihood of dying early – as much as 20 years earlier than normal. average person, in some cases.
According to clinical psychologist David Owens from the University of Edinburgh, who was not involved in the research, the study “may again reflect the health and social inequalities experienced by patients with dementia. long-term psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia remain prevalent “.
Tempted by paranoia and plagued by stigma, people with schizophrenia often receive treatment and may avoid help.
But the study, by design, only looked at people who had access to COVID-19 testing and medical care – at a time when health services were severely disrupted, and testing was limited.
This could mean that the people in the study had a very severe case of COVID-19, or that they had family or friends who could help them get to the hospital. Sadly, we cannot say what happened to anyone who had COVID-19 at home but did not seek medical attention.
Even with the differences accepting this study, if anything, it shows that our overall efforts must be focused on helping vulnerable people, such as those with schizophrenia and long-term health conditions. other life.
“Here [research] showing that it is crucial to see people with schizophrenia [a] high – risk group and have early access to vaccines, “said psychiatrist and epilepsy psychiatrist Matthew Hotopf, at King ‘s College London, who was not involved in the study.
The research was published in the journal JAMA Psychology.