Background:
Previous studies have shown that young help-seeking people with psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are at ultrahigh risk of developing a psychotic disorder. However, not all people with PLE go onto developing a psychotic disorder. It is important to identify whether some PLEs are more likely to progress to frank psychotic disorder than others and whether there are any associated features that make progression more likely.
Methods:
We carried out a community survey of year 10 students. Sixty secondary schools were approached to participate in the study, 34 consented. All year 10 students attending these schools were invited to participate. Students were administered the Community Assessment of Psychotic Experiences (CAPE), the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12). These self-report questionnaires measure psychotic symptoms, depressive symptoms and level of functioning. A sample of 883 students completed the survey.
Results:
PLEs were highly prevalent in the sample. Nearly all participants (99.1%) reported that they had experienced one or more PLEs at least ‘sometimes’. Nearly one third of the sample endorsed at least half of the items. PLE data were factor analyzed, and the associations of psychotic subtypes and distress, depression and functioning level were examined. These data will be presented.
Conclusions:
This is one of the first studies that found that PLE is commonly experienced in a community sample of adolescents. Further research is needed to explore the significance of this finding.
