Risk of Death in Individuals Hospitalized for COVID-19 With and Without Psychiatric Disorders: An Observational Multicenter Study in France

Biol Psychiatry Glob Open Sci. 2023 Jan;3(1):56-67. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2021.12.007. Epub 2022 Jan 4.

Abstract

Background: Prior research suggests that psychiatric disorders could be linked to increased mortality among patients with COVID-19. However, whether all or specific psychiatric disorders are intrinsic risk factors of death in COVID-19 or whether these associations reflect the greater prevalence of medical risk factors in people with psychiatric disorders has yet to be evaluated.

Methods: We performed an observational, multicenter, retrospective cohort study to examine the association between psychiatric disorders and mortality among patients hospitalized for laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 at 36 Greater Paris University hospitals.

Results: Of 15,168 adult patients, 857 (5.7%) had an ICD-10 diagnosis of psychiatric disorder. Over a mean follow-up period of 14.6 days (SD = 17.9), 326 of 857 (38.0%) patients with a diagnosis of psychiatric disorder died compared with 1276 of 14,311 (8.9%) patients without such a diagnosis (odds ratio 6.27, 95% CI 5.40-7.28, p < .01). When adjusting for age, sex, hospital, current smoking status, and medications according to compassionate use or as part of a clinical trial, this association remained significant (adjusted odds ratio 3.27, 95% CI 2.78-3.85, p < .01). However, additional adjustments for obesity and number of medical conditions resulted in a nonsignificant association (adjusted odds ratio 1.02, 95% CI 0.84-1.23, p = .86). Exploratory analyses after the same adjustments suggested that a diagnosis of mood disorders was significantly associated with reduced mortality, which might be explained by the use of antidepressants.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that the increased risk of COVID-19-related mortality in individuals with psychiatric disorders hospitalized for COVID-19 might be explained by the greater number of medical conditions and the higher prevalence of obesity in this population and not by the underlying psychiatric disease.

Keywords: Antidepressants; COVID-19; Comorbidity; Mental disorders; Mood disorders; Mortality; Obesity; Psychiatric disorders; Risk of death; SARS-CoV-2.