Psychiatric patient profiling during the COVID-19 pandemic – should schizophrenia be assigned among risk factors?

Objective. While identifying vulnerable groups is critical in any pandemic, limited information has been published on COVID-19 patients with underlying psychiatric comorbidities. This study aimed to assess whether a pre-existing diagnosis of schizophrenia represents an independent risk factor for severe COVID-19 and whether patients with schizophrenia have poorer outcomes compared to those with other premorbid mental illnesses. Methods. The present data derive from the medical records of 242 patients admitted to “Prof. Dr. Alexandru Obregia” Clinical Psychiatry Hospital (Bucharest, Romania), Department 9, with a positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) test result between October 2020 and May 2021. Results. Of the patients, 128 (52.9%) were diagnosed with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder. Psychiatric patients who developed a severe form of infection were older and more likely to have relevant somatic comorbidities for COVID-19 compared to the rest of the patients in the study sample (p < 0.001). No significant association was found between a particular psychiatric diagnosis and a severe form of infection (p > 0.005), with only a small proportion