Individuals with a history of psychiatric disorders may be at a higher risk of COVID-19 breakthrough infections, even after being vaccinated, according to a new study issued by the University of California, San Francisco (UCFS).
“Patients with psychiatric disorders have a heightened risk for breakthrough infections,” said Aoife O’Donovan, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UCSF and senior author of the USFC’s study.
Psychiatric disorders such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder can lead to a higher risk for a host of other physical health problems, such as inflammation and impaired immune function, according to O’Donovan.
“The causes are multifactorial, but this suggests we need to pay more attention to protecting patients who have pre-existing psychiatric disorders,” he noted.
The study further showed that the association between psychiatric disorder diagnoses and elevated breakthrough Covid-19 risk was “strongest among patients 65 and over, reflecting the generally higher vulnerability to Covid-19 among older people.”
Scientists are still working to find the precise relationship between mental health and Covid-19 vulnerability, but many previous studies indicated that people with certain psychiatric disorders have lowered immune function or poor response to vaccines.
The study looked at data from 263,697 fully vaccinated patients who accessed health care from the U.S. Departments of Veterans Affairs between February 2020 and November 2021.
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