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Review
. 2021 May:299:113856.
doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2021.113856. Epub 2021 Mar 3.

A meta-analysis: The mortality and severity of COVID-19 among patients with mental disorders

Ahmad A Toubasi  1 , Rand B AbuAnzeh  2 , Hind B Abu Tawileh  2 , Renad H Aldebei  2 , Saif Aldeen S Alryalat  3
Affiliations
Review

A meta-analysis: The mortality and severity of COVID-19 among patients with mental disorders

Ahmad A Toubasi et al. Psychiatry Res. 2021 May.

Abstract

Several observational studies investigated the relationship between pre-diagnosis with mental disorders and COVID-19 outcomes. Thus, we have decided to conduct this meta-analysis to explore this relationship. We complied to the PRISMA guidelines in conducting this meta-analysis. PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar and medRxiv were searched until the 15th of February, 2021. We used the Random effect model in Meta XL, version 5.3 to pool the included studies. Statistical heterogeneity was assessed using Cochran's Q heterogeneity test and I². This meta-analysis included 634,338 COVID-19 patients from 16 studies. Our findings revealed that pre-diagnosis with mental disorders increased the risk of COVID-19 mortality and severity. This increase in the risk of COVID-19 mortality and severity remained significant in the model that only included the studies that adjusted for confounding variables. Furthermore, higher mortality was noticed in the included studies among schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders patients compared to mood disorders patients. In this meta-analysis we provided two models which both reported a significant increase in the risk of COVID-19 severity and mortality among patients with mental disorders, and with the upcoming COVID-19 vaccines, we recommend to give this category the priority in the vaccination campaigns along with medical health providers and elderly.

Keywords: Human; Meta-Analysis; Pandemics; Psychiatric diseases; SARS-COV-2; Systematic Reviews.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations of interest: none.

Figures

Figure 1
Fig. 1
PRISMA Flow Chart.
Figure 2
Fig. 2
Mental Disorders and COVID-19 Outcomes (non-fully adjusted).
Figure 3
Fig. 3
Mental Disorders and COVID-19 Outcomes (fully-adjusted).
Figure 4
Fig. 4
Publication Bias Funnel Plot.
Figure 5
Fig. 5
Mental Disorders and COVID-19 Outcomes in UK.
Figure 6
Fig. 6
Mental Disorders and COVID-19 Outcomes in USA.
Figure 7
Fig. 7
Mental Disorders and COVID-19 Outcomes in South Korea.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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