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Trauma and psychotic experiences: Transnational data from the World Mental Health survey

  • WHO World Mental Health Survey Collaborators
  • The University of Queensland
  • Aarhus University
  • UC Davis Health
  • Institut Hospital del Mar d’Investigacions Mediques
  • Pompeu Fabra University
  • Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Publica
  • University of São Paulo
  • Stony Brook University School of Medicine
  • Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  • Universidade Nova de Lisboa
  • Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico
  • Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy and Applied Care, Beirut
  • National School of Public Health
  • University College Hospital, Ibadan
  • Universitat de Barcelona
  • University of Tokyo
  • Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • Paris Descartes University
  • The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Université Paris Cité
  • University of Washington
  • National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de la Fuente Muñiz
  • College of Medicine, University of Ibadan
  • Colegio Mayor de Cundinamarca University
  • Harvard Medical School
  • University of Otago
  • National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry
  • Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction
  • Virginia Commonwealth University

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

90 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Traumatic events are associated with increased risk of psychotic experiences, but it is unclear whether this association is explained by mental disorders prior to psychotic experience onset. Aims: To investigate the associations between traumatic events and subsequent psychotic experience onset after adjusting for post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental disorders. Method: We assessed 29 traumatic event types and psychotic experiences from the World Mental Health surveys and examined the associations of traumatic events with subsequent psychotic experience onset with and without adjustments for mental disorders. Results: Respondents with any traumatic events had three times the odds of other respondents of subsequently developing psychotic experiences (OR=3.1, 95% CI 2.7-3.7), with variability in strength of association across traumatic event types. These associations persisted after adjustment for mental disorders. Conclusions: Exposure to traumatic events predicts subsequent onset of psychotic experiences even after adjusting for comorbid mental disorders.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)373-380
Number of pages8
JournalBritish Journal of Psychiatry
Volume211
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2017

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