Associations Between Psychotic Experiences, Mental Disorders Found to Be Bidirectional

While previous studies suggest that psychotic experiences are associated with an elevated risk of subsequent mental disorders, the findings of a study published online today in AJP in Advance also suggest that most mental disorders are associated with an elevated risk of subsequent psychotic experiences.John McGrath, M.D., Ph.D. (pictured above), a professor of psychiatry at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues drew on data gathered by trained lay interviewers on 31,261 people in 18 countries as part of the World Health Organization’s World Mental Health Surveys. They were looking not just for prevalence of psychotic experiences and mental illnesses but for any temporal associations between the two.Of the 21 common mental disorders studied, psychotic experiences were significantly associated with subsequent first onset of eight disorders (major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, posttraumatic stress disorder, adult separation anxiety disorder, bulimia nervosa, and alcohol abuse). In contrast, 18 of the 21 mental disorders were linked with subsequent first-onset psychotic experiences, with odds ratios ranging from 1.5 to 2.8 depending on the illness.“These findings call into the question the specificity of the association between psychotic experiences and psychotic disorders,” the researchers wrote. “A better understanding of how psychotic experiences unfold across the lifespan and interact...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: American Journal of Psychiatry depression Evelyn Bromet John McGrath Kenneth Kendler mental disorders mood disorders psychiatric epidemiology psychosis psychotic experiences Ronald Kessler WHO Source Type: research