Published on September 30, 2020, in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers from the Yale New Haven Health System have shown that in the United States, patients with psychiatric illness hospitalized due to a Covid infection -19, have a higher risk of mortality than the others.
Psychiatric comorbidity would increase the risk of mortality linked to Covid-19
Researchers at the Yale New Haven Health System (a system of 5 hospitals located in the northeastern United States) sought to understand whether psychiatric comorbidity could increase mortality from Covid-19. To do this, the scientists recovered the data obtained from Epic Systems on all encounters of hospitalized patients positive for Covid-19 between February 15 and April 25, 2020, and followed until May 27, 2020 for mortality.
Out of 1,685 patients admitted to several healthcare establishments, 318 patients died. According to the results of the study “ patients with a psychiatric diagnosis had a higher mortality rate than those without a psychiatric diagnosis, with 35.7% vs 14.7% mortality at 2 weeks and 40.9% vs 22.2% mortality at 3 weeks and with 44.8% vs. 31.5% of the mortality rate at 4 weeks “.
Double your watch for the weeks to come
If the mortality linked to Covid-19 is higher in patients with psychiatric illness, researchers do not yet know how to explain the reasons even if they submit several hypotheses. In the results of the study, we can read ” It is not known why psychiatric illness predisposes to death from COVID-19. Psychiatric symptoms may appear as a marker of systemic pathophysiological processes, such as inflammation, which in turn may predispose to mortality. Likewise, psychiatric disorders can increase systemic inflammation and compromise immune system function, while psychotropic drugs may also be associated with a risk of mortality.. ”
One thing is certain, this study shows that a previous psychiatric diagnosis can be a risk factor that can cause the death of the patient. This is why we must redouble surveillance in mental health establishments. According to Marion Leboyer, head of the psychiatry department at CHU Henri-Mondor, in Créteil (Val-de-Marne): “ We have to look at these numbers closely to prepare for what will surely happen here. “
