Findings of Increased Risk of Nonaffective Psychosis in Refugees Highly Relevant to Current Worldwide Refugee Crisis

In this issue of JAMA Psychiatry, Brandt et al present what is, to my knowledge, the first systematic review and meta-analysis of the risk of nonaffective psychosis in first-generation and second-generation refugees. The nonaffective psychoses include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorders, and schizophreniform disorders (and exclude affective psychoses, such as in depression, mania, and bipolar disorder), and the results showed significant and consistent increases in relative risks among refugees (1.39 [95% CI, 1.23-1.58] and 2.41 [95% CI, 1.51-3.85] compared with nonrefugee migrants and the native population, respectively). The risk of bias of studies was assessed using validated tools, and several sensitivity and additional analyses were performed in which results were robust.
Source: JAMA Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research