OBJECTIVES: Mental disorders are at-risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. There is limited and heterogeneous national data in hospital settings evaluating the risks associated with any pre-existing mental disorder, and susceptible subgroups. Our study aimed to investigate the association between pre-existing psychiatric disorders and outcomes of adults hospitalised for COVID-19.

METHODS: We used data obtained from the French national hospital database linked to the state-level psychiatric registry. The primary outcome was 30-days in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes were to compare the length of hospital stay, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission and ICU length. Propensity score matching analysis was used to control for COVID-19 confounding factors between patients with or without mental disorder and stratified by psychiatric subgroups.

RESULTS: Among 97,302 adults hospitalised for COVID-19 from March to September 2020, 10,083 (10.3%) had a pre-existing mental disorder, mainly dementia (3,581 [3.7%]), mood disorders (1,298 [1.3%]), anxiety disorders (995 [1.0%]), psychoactive substance use disorders (960 [1.0%]), and psychotic disorders (866 [0.9%]). In propensity-matched analysis, 30-days in-hospital mortality was increased among those with at least one pre-existing mental disorder (hazard ratio (HR) 1.15, 95% CI 1.08–1.23), psychotic disorder (1.90, 1.24–2.90), mood disorder (1.19, 1.00–1.42) and psychoactive substance disorders (1.53, 1.10–2.14). The odds of ICU admission were consistently decreased for patients with any pre-existing mental disorder (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.76–0.92) and for those with dementia (0.64, 0.53–0.76).

CONCLUSIONS: Pre-existing mental disorders were independently associated with in-hospital mortality. These findings underscore the important need for adequate care and targeted interventions for at-risk individuals with severe mental illness.