People with psychiatric conditions are more likely to be hospitalised or die of the virus. Scientists have ideas about why that might be. It’s been clear since the early days of the pandemic: people with mental illness are more likely to have severe outcomes from Covid.
Compared with the general population, they’re at higher risk of being hospitalised, developing long Covid or dying from an infection. That fact puts mental illness on the same list as better-known Covid risk factors such as cardiovascular issues, chronic kidney disease and asthma. When it comes to Covid risk, mental illness “shouldn’t be treated differently than you treat diabetes or heart disease or cancer ”, said Dr Ziyad Al-Aly, the chief of research and development at the Veterans Affairs St Louis Healthcare System.
Scientists now have a better understanding of who is vulnerable. While research has linked a wide range of mental illnesses to worse Covid outcomes, experts generally believe that the risk is greatest for people with severe or unmanaged mental health conditions – suggesting that someone with schizophrenia , for example, is more likely to get sicker from Covid than someone receiving treatment for anxiety. They also have several hypotheses about why mental illness might make people more susceptible.
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