A large multi-state electronic health record-based study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) VISION Network has found that COVID-19 vaccines are as effective for adults with anxiety or depression or mood disorders as for individuals without these common diagnoses. This is one of the first studies to evaluate COVID-19 mRNA vaccine effectiveness for those living with mental illness.
While vaccination provided similar protection regardless of psychiatric diagnosis (none, one or multiple conditions), in contrast, unvaccinated adults with any of these conditions had a higher rate of hospitalization for COVID-19 – a marker for severe disease – than did those without a psychiatric diagnosis.
Both these findings held true whether two, three or four vaccinations were received and for ages 18-49, 50-64 and 65 and older.