Schizophrenia and PCR-proved cases of COVID-19: A preliminary case-control study

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The coronavirus infection (COVID-19) significantly impacts populations worldwide, including individuals with schizophrenia. This study meant to investigate whether COVID-19 patients with schizophrenia have the same disease severity and outcome as those without schizophrenia. Methods: This case-control, retrospective study included 108 adult patients who attended a tertiary care hospital with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19. The study cohort was divided into the patient group (n=54) with confirmed schizophrenia diagnosis and the matched control group. The patients' medical data were retrieved from archived hospital e-medical records from 1 January to 26 February 2021. A logistic regression study was made to identify the risk of concomitant comorbidities. Results: Females accounted for 25.9% of the study population. Approximately 75% of the participants were aged >= 50 (50-69) years. None of the study participants were admitted to the ICU. Patients with schizophrenia had more comorbidities (68.5%) than COVID-19 patients without schizophrenia (35.2%). Nevertheless, patients with schizophrenia were less likely to have a concomitant cerebrovascular disease (OR = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.39-0.58, p <0.001), epilepsy (OR = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.39-0.59, p <0.001), or bronchial asthma (OR = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.40-0.59, p <0.001). There were no reported cases of mortality in either study group. Conclusions: Although COVID-19 patients with schizophrenia had multiple comorbidities, they did not necessarily present a severe course or detrimental outcome compared to COVID-19 patients without schizophrenia. Further studies are required to confirm the findings of this study.