Abstract
Background
Psychotic symptoms, psychotic-like experiences and schizotypal signs can emerge in different socio-cultural circumstances and cause clinical or non-clinical pictures. Transient or self-limiting psychotic-like experiences are more prevalent than clinical psychotic disorders. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of psychotic symptoms in an urban area.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted among the residents of two districts in the urban area of Izmir, Turkey. Among the systematically selected 1,500 residents of 85,212-study population, a total of 1,268 individuals (response rate: 84.5%) were screened for any lifetime psychotic symptoms.
Results
Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) was used to assess psychotic symptoms. CIDI (+) psychotic symptoms were found in 3.6% of the screened sample. Logistic regression analysis showed that being a female (OR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.2–5.1), having a first degree family history of any mental disorders (OR = 13.9, 95% CI = 5.7–34.3), lack of social support (OR = 4.5, 95% CI = 2.3–8.6) and alcohol use (OR = 4.9, 95% CI = 2.3–10.6) were all related to psychotic symptoms.
Conclusion
Prevalence of any psychotic symptom is lower compared to European studies. Alcohol might be considered as a risk factor for developing psychotic symptoms in the Turkish cultural setting.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aleman A, Kahn RS, Selten JP (2003) Sex differences in the risk of schizophrenia: evidence from meta-analysis. Arch Gen Psychiatry 60:565–571
Akvardar Y, Demiral Y, Ergor G, Ergor A (2004) Substance use among medical students and physicians in a medical school in Turkey. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 39:502–506
Akvardar Y, Tümüklü M, Akdede BB, Ulaş H, Kitiş A, Alptekin K (2004) Substance use among patients with schizophrenia in a university hospital. Bull Clin Psychopharmacol 14:191–197
Allardyce J, Boydell J (2006) The wider social environment and schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 32:592–598
Alptekın K, Erkoç S, Göğüs AK et al (2005) Disability in schizophrenia: clinical correlates and prediction over one-year follow-up. Psychiatry Res 135:103–111
Barnes TRE, Mutsatsa SH, Hutton SB, Watt HC, Joyce EM (2006) Comorbid substance use and age at onset of schizophrenia. Br J Psychiatry 188:237–242
Cantor-Graae E, Selten JP (2005) Schizophrenia and migration: a meta-analysis and review. Am J Psychiatry 162:12–24
Castle DJ, Sham PC, Wessely S, Murray RM (1994) The subtyping ofschizophrenia in men and women: a latent class analysis. Psychol Med 24:41–51
Collip D, Myin-Germeys I, Van Os J (2008) Does the concept of “sensitization” provide a plausible mechanism for the putative link between the environment and schizophrenia? Schizophr Bull 34:220–225
Compton MT, Whicker NE, Hochman KM (2007) Alcohol and cannabis use in urban, African American, first-episode schizophrenia-spectrum patients: associations with positive and negative symptoms. J Clin Psychiatry 68:1939–1945
Cooper L, Peters L, Andrews G (1998) Validity of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) psychosis module in a psychiatric setting. J Psychiatr Res 32:361–368
Cooper C, Morgan C, Byrne M et al (2008) Perceptions of disadvantage, ethnicity and psychosis. Br J Psychiatry 192:185–190
Demiral Y, Ergor G, Unal B et al (2006) Normative data and discriminative properties of short form 36 (SF-36) in Turkish urban population. BMC Public Health 6:24
Goldstein JM, Santangelo SL, Simpson JC, Tsuang MT (1990) The role of gender in identifying subtypes of schizophrenia: a latent class analytic approach. Schizophr Bull 16:263–275
Green AI, Noordsy DL, Brunette MF, O’Keefe C (2008) Substance abuse and schizophrenia; pharmacotherapeutic intervention. J Subs Abuse Treat 34:61–71
Hambrecht M, Maurer K, Hafner H, Sartorıus N (1992) Transnational stability of gender differences in schizophrenia? An analysis based on the WHO study on determinants of outcome of severe mental disorders. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 242:6–12
Hanssen MS, Bijl RV, Vollebergh W, Van Os J (2003) Self-reported psychotic experiences in the general population: a valid screening tool for DSMIII-R psychotic disorders? Acta Psychiatr Scand 107:369–377
Henquet C, Murray R, Linszen D, Van Os J (2005) The environment and schizophrenia: the role of cannabis use. Schizophr Bull 31:608–612
Kebede D, Alem A, Shibre T, Negash A, Deyassa N, Beyero T (2004) The sociodemographic correlates of schizophrenia in Butajira, rural Ethiopia. Schizophr Res 69:133–141
Kendler KS, Gallagher TJ, Abelson JM, Kessler RC (1996) Lifetime prevalence, demographic risk factors, and diagnostic validity of non-affective psychosis as assessed in a US community sample. The National Comorbidity Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry 53:1022–1031
Kilic C (1998) Mental health profile of Turkey: main report. Ministry of Health, Ankara
Koroglu MA, Bilici M, Bekaroğlu M et al (1999) Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of schizophrenia prevalence in Trabzon. In: 35th national psychiatry congress abstract book, pp 371–377 (in Turkish)
Krabbendam L, Van Os J (2005) Schizophrenia and urbanicity: a major environmental influence—conditional on genetic risk. Schizophr Bull 31:795–799
Leung A, Chue P (2000) Sex differences in schizophrenia, a review of the literature. Acta Psychiatr Scand 101:3–38
Loewy RL, Johnson JK, Cannon TD (2007) Self-report of attenuated psychotic experiences in a college population. Schizopr Res 93:144–151
McGrath J, Saha S, Welham J, EL Saadi O, Maccauley C, Chant D (2004) A systematic review of the incidence of schizophrenia: the distribution of rates and the influence of sex, urbanicity, migrant status and methodology. BMC Med 28:2–13
Perälä J, Suvisaari J, Saarni SI et al (2007) Lifetime prevalence of psychotic and bipolar I disorders in a general population. Arch Gen Psychiatry 64:19–28
Poulton R, Caspi A, Moffitt TE, Cannon M, Murray R, Harrington H (2000) Children’s self-reported psychotic symptoms and adult schizophreniform disorder: a 15-year longitudinal study. Arch Gen Psychiatry 57:1053–1058
Read J, Van Os J, Morrison AP, Ross CA (2005) Childhood trauma, psychosis and schizophrenia: a literature review with theoretical and clinical implications. Acta Psychiatr Scand 112:330–350
Robins LN, Wing J, Wittchen HU et al (1988) The Composite International Diagnostic Interview. An epidemiological instrument suitable for use in conjunction with different diagnostic systems and different cultures. Arch Gen Psychiatry 45:1069–1077
Rossler W, Riecher-Rossler A, Angst J et al (2007) Psychotic experiences in the general population: a twenty-year prospective community study. Schizopr Res 92:1–14
Saha S, Chant D, Welham J, Mcgrath J (2005) A systematic review of the prevalence of schizophrenia. PLoS Med 2:e141
Scott J, Chant D, Andrews G, McGrath J (2006) Psychotic-like experiences in the general community: the correlates of CIDI psychosis screen items in an Australian sample. Psychol Med 36:231–238
Scott J, Welham J, Martin G et al (2008) Demographic correlates of psychotic-like experiences in young Australian adults. Acata Psychiatr Scand 118:230–237
Talamo A, Centorrino F, Tondo L, Dimitri A, Hennen J, Baldessarini RJ (2006) Comorbid substance use in schizophrenia: relation to positive and negative symptoms. Schizophr Res 86:251–255
TUIK (Statistics Institute of Turkey) (2003) The 2000 population and housing census. Statistical report. Ankara
Van Os J, Verdoux H, Maurıce-Tison S et al (1999) Self-reported psychosis-like symptoms and the continuum of psychosis. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 34:459–463
Van Os J, Hanssen M, Bijl RV, Ravelli A (2000) Strauss (1969) revisited: a psychosis continuum in the general population? Schizophr Res 45:11–20
Van Os J, Hanssen M, Bijl RV, Vollebergh W (2001) Prevalence of psychotic disorder and community level of psychotic symptoms: an urban–rural comparison. Arch Gen Psychiatry 58:663–668
Van Os J, Hanssen M, Bak M, Bijl Rv, Vollebergh W (2003) Do urbanicity and familial liability coparticipate in causing psychosis? Am J Psychiatry 160:477–482
Van Os J, Linscott RJ, Myin-Germeys I, Delespaul P, Krabbendam L (2008) A systematic review and meta-analysisof the psychosis continuum: evidence for a psychosis proneness-persistence-impairment model of psychotic disorder. Psychol Med 8:1–17
Vanheusden K, Mulder CL, Van Der Ende J et al (2008) Associations between ethnicity and self-reported hallucinations in a population sample of young adults in The Netherlands. Psychol Med 38:1095–1102
Veling W, Susser E, Van Os J, Mackenbach JP, Selten JP, Hoek EW (2008) Ethnic density of neighborhoods and incidence of psychotic disorders among immigrants. Am J Psychiatry 165:66–73
Verdoux H, Maurice-Tison S, Gay B, Van Os J, Salamon R, Bourgeois ML (1998) A survey of delusional ideation in primary-care patients. Psychol Med 28:127–134
Verdoux H, Sorbara F, Gindre C, Swendsen JD, Van Os J (2002) Cannabis use and dimensions of psychosis in a nonclinical population of female subjects. Schizophr Res 59:77–84
Wittchen HU, Robins LN, Cottler LB, Sartorius N, Burke JD, Reiger D (1991) Cross-cultural feasibility, reliability and sources of variance of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). The multicentre WHO/ADAMHA field trials. Br J Psychiatry 159:645–653
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by Dokuz Eylul University Research Fund Project no. 0909.01.02.02, April 2001. The authors are grateful to Gül Ergör and Belgin Ünal. Without their enthusiastic participation, this project could not have been realized.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Alptekin, K., Ulas, H., Akdede, B.B. et al. Prevalence and risk factors of psychotic symptoms: in the city of Izmir, Turkey. Soc Psychiat Epidemiol 44, 905–910 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-009-0012-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-009-0012-x