A new study suggests that schizophrenia and severe mood and anxiety disorders are tied to a significantly lower risk of COVID-19; however, they are associated with a two to four times higher risk of death from the infection. 

Investigators evaluated the electronic health records of 2.5 million adults with private health insurance who underwent testing for COVID-19 in 2020. The overall positivity rate for the cohort was 11.91%. Positivity rate for people with schizophrenia or mood disorders was 9.86% and that for people with anxiety disorder was 11.17%.

However, patients with schizophrenia were found to have the highest likelihood of death from COVID-19 after adjusting for age, race, body mass index, and comorbidities (aOR, 3.74; 95% CI, 2.66 – 5.24). Additionally, patients with mood disorders had about three times higher odds of death (aOR, 2.76; 95% CI, 2.00 – 3.81), and patients with anxiety disorders had over two-fold higher mortality risk (aOR, 2.34; 95% CI, 1.68 – 3.27). The study is published in JAMA Network Open… (Medscape)