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Keywords:

Antipsychotic Agents, Disease Progression, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Humans, Incidence, Phenotype, Prevalence, Prognosis, Psychotherapy, Psychotic Disorders, Risk Factors, Schizophrenia, Social Sciences, Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Psychology, Clinical, Psychiatry, Psychology, Epidemiology, psychosis, schizophrenia, schizotypy, treatment, SCHIZOTYPAL PERSONALITY-DISORDER, EARLY DEVELOPMENTAL-STAGES, SELF-REPORT SCHIZOTYPY, DELUSIONAL IDEATION, GENERAL-POPULATION, RISK-FACTORS, COMMUNITY SAMPLE, HALLUCINATORY PREDISPOSITION, REPORTED HALLUCINATIONS, NONAFFECTIVE PSYCHOSIS, 1109 Neurosciences, 1117 Public Health and Health Services, 1701 Psychology, 3202 Clinical sciences, 5202 Biological psychology, 5203 Clinical and health psychology

Abstract:

A systematic review of all reported incidence and prevalence studies of population rates of subclinical psychotic experiences reveals a median prevalence rate of around 5% and a median incidence rate of around 3%. A meta-analysis of risk factors reveals associations with developmental stage, child and adult social adversity, psychoactive drug use, and also male sex and migrant status. The small difference between prevalence and incidence rates, together with data from follow-up studies, indicates that approximately 75-90% of developmental psychotic experiences are transitory and disappear over time. There is evidence, however, that transitory developmental expression of psychosis (psychosis proneness) may become abnormally persistent (persistence) and subsequently clinically relevant (impairment), depending on the degree of environmental risk the person is additionally exposed to. The psychosis proneness-persistence-impairment model considers genetic background factors impacting on a broadly distributed and transitory population expression of psychosis during development, poor prognosis of which, in terms of persistence and clinical need, is predicted by environmental exposure interacting with genetic risk.