The Continuum of Psychotic Symptoms in the General Population: A Cross-national Study

To identify the cross-national prevalence of psychotic symptoms in the general population and to analyze their impact on health status. The sample was composed of 256,445 subjects (55.9% women), from nationally representative samples of 52 countries worldwide participating in the World Health Organi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Schizophrenia bulletin 2012-05, Vol.38 (3), p.475-485
Main Authors: NUEVO, Roberto, CHATTERJI, Somnath, VERDES, Emese, NAIDOO, Nirmala, ARANGO, Celso, AYUSO-MATEOS, José Luis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Africa - epidemiology
Asia - epidemiology
Biological and medical sciences
Cross-Cultural Comparison
Delusions - classification
Delusions - epidemiology
Europe - epidemiology
Female
Hallucinations - epidemiology
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
North America - epidemiology
Prevalence
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychoses
Psychotic Disorders - epidemiology
Regular
Schizophrenia
South America - epidemiology
World Health Organization
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Summary:To identify the cross-national prevalence of psychotic symptoms in the general population and to analyze their impact on health status. The sample was composed of 256,445 subjects (55.9% women), from nationally representative samples of 52 countries worldwide participating in the World Health Organization's World Health Survey. Standardized and weighted prevalence of psychotic symptoms were calculated in addition to the impact on health status as assessed by functioning in multiple domains. Overall prevalences for specific symptoms ranged from 4.80% (SE = 0.14) for delusions of control to 8.37% (SE = 0.20) for delusions of reference and persecution. Prevalence figures varied greatly across countries. All symptoms of psychosis produced a significant decline in health status after controlling for potential confounders. There was a clear change in health impact between subjects not reporting any symptom and those reporting at least one symptom (effect size of 0.55). The prevalence of the presence of at least one psychotic symptom has a wide range worldwide varying as much as from 0.8% to 31.4%. Psychotic symptoms signal a problem of potential public health concern, independent of the presence of a full diagnosis of psychosis, as they are common and are related to a significant decrement in health status. The presence of at least one psychotic symptom is related to a significant poorer health status, with a regular linear decrement in health depending on the number of symptoms.
ISSN:0586-7614
1745-1701
DOI:10.1093/schbul/sbq099