Background:
Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) increase the risk of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, yet are common in the community. Not everybody who experiences PLEs develops a psychotic disorder. It is important to understand the way in which the presence of PLEs is a risk factor for the development of a psychotic disorder. The aims of this study were 1) to determine the prevalence of PLEs in a clinical sample of non-psychotic young people; 2) to investigate the stability of these PLEs over a 6-month period and 3) to examine the associations between PLEs, psychiatric morbidity and psychosocial functioning.
Methods:
Consecutive referrals to a youth psychiatric service (n = 140) were assessed to measure PLEs, psychiatric morbidity and psychosocial functioning. These assessments were undertaken at the time of referral, 3 and 6 months. The PLE data were factor analyzed to determine whether there were different subtypes of these experiences. The associations between PLEs, psychiatric morbidity and psychosocial functioning were also examined.
Results:
Almost all of the sample (98.6%) reported experiencing at least one of the PLEs at least ‘sometimes’ in their lifetime. PLEs were also highly prevalent at 3 and 6 months. Three subtypes of PLEs were identified: bizarre experiences, persecutory ideas and magical thinking. Bizarre experiences and persecutory ideas were associated with poor functioning.
Conclusions:
Bizarre experiences and persecutory ideas may be more malignant forms of psychotic symptoms as they are associated with current disability and may confer increased risk of development of full-blown psychotic disorder.
