COVID-19 Mortality Risk Higher for People with Severe Mental Illness, Study Shows

New research from King’s College London has found that in the UK people with severe mental illness were at increased risk of death from all causes following COVID-19 infection compared to those without severe mental illness.

Published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, the study investigated the extent to which having severe mental illness, which includes schizophrenia and psychosis, increased the risk of death during the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) and ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health analyzed data from over 660,000 UK patients between February 2020 and April 2021.

Among the 7146 people with severe mental illness, there was a 50 per cent greater risk of death from all causes following COVID-19 infection compared with those without severe mental illness.

Black Caribbean/Black African people were at a 22 per cent higher risk of death following COVID-19 infection than White people, and this was similar for people with and without severe mental illness. However, in around 30 per cent of patient data, ethnicity was not recorded.

The study revealed regional differences: on average, risk of death following COVID-19 infection was higher among Northern UK regions compared to Southern regions. Those in Northern Ireland, the East Midlands and the North-East were at between 24 – 28 per cent increased risk of death compared to those in London.