Effect of psychotropics on the risk of COVID-19 in middle-aged and older adults

Abstract

Older adults have been markedly impacted by the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic, and many reports have cited concerns regarding potential psychiatric sequelae of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but the actual effects of psychotropics on the COVID-19 are unclear. In this study, multivariate logistic regression was used to evaluate associations between the prescription of psychotropics and the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and COVID-19-related death among the participants who were tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) before October 18, 2021, in UK Biobank. The psychotropics included 18 types of medications. Among 168,173 participants who underwent testing for SARS-CoV-2 RNA, 30,577 (18.2%) were positive, and 14,284 (8.5%) participants used psychotropics. Among 30,577 participants who were infected with SARS-CoV-2, 1,181 (3.9%) were COVID-19-related deaths, and 2,542 (8.3%) participants used psychotropics. In multivariate logistic regression, psychotropics use was significantly associated with the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection (odds ratio [OR], 0.95; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.88–0.98), and COVID-19-related death (OR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.64–0.98). Interestingly, the use of diazepam was significantly associated with a 31% lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection (OR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.53–0.88). The use of sertraline was significantly associated with a 89% lower risk of COVID-19-related death (OR, 0.11; 95% CI, 0.02–0.39). In conclusion, our findings suggested that the use of psychotropics was associated with a lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19-related deaths.