SCHIZOVAC

It is now well recognized that the life expectancy of patients with severe mental disorders is reduced by 10 years compared to the general population and up to 15 years for schizophrenia, due to frequent somatic co-morbidities and poor general health. Several recent studies have shown that while individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia are note systematically over-represented regarding hospitalization rates for COVID 19, they are however at higher risk of COVID-related mortality than the non-clinical population. As such, people with schizophrenia should therefore be prioritised in vaccine allocation strategies. However, several important barriers could negatively affect the uptake of a COVID-19 vaccine in this population, among them attitudes of individuals with schizophrenia towards vaccination and impaired decision-making capacities. Indeed, impaired decision-making ability has been repeatedly observed in schizophrenia patients. Using both experimental tasks, such as the Iowa Gambling Task and clinical tools such as the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Clinical Research (MacCAT-CR) or for Treatment (MacCAT-T). Ability to make treatment decision has been proposed as one of the most impaired decision-making capacity in schizophrenia. In addition, a recent large-scale study showed that reduced trust in institutions, and both conspiracy beliefs and persecutory ideas, two psychological features highly present in individuals with schizophrenia, were positively associated with COVID 19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance. Nevertheless, to our knowledge no studies of the attitudes of people with schizophrenia regarding vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 exists and particularly concerning the French population. SCHIZOVAC adresses this question by 1) assess attitudes of people with schizophrenia regarding vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 2) Exploring if individuals with schizophrenia have the competence to consent to treatment to COVID-10 vaccines and 3) what are the key factors that negatively influence decicion-making capacity and attitudes towards vaccination in this clinical population.