Psychotic Experiences and Mental Health Outcomes

Psychotic experiences encompass a spectrum of perceptual and cognitive anomalies that range from fleeting, subclinical events to persistent symptoms characteristic of psychotic disorders. These phenomena occur along a continuum, with psychotic-like experiences frequently reported in general populations and in patients treated for common mental health conditions. Their presence is associated with heightened risk for mood and anxiety disorders, increased functional impairment and greater healthcare utilisation. A confluence of genetic predisposition, neurodevelopmental factors, childhood adversity, cognitive biases and affective dysregulation contributes to both the emergence and persistence of these experiences. Contemporary research has shifted towards transdiagnostic and longitudinal approaches, employing neuroimaging, cohort studies and ecological momentary assessment to elucidate underlying neural circuits and temporal trajectories. Early identification and resilience-building interventions show promise in attenuating progression to clinical psychosis, emphasising the importance of integrated screening and personalized therapeutic strategies to address the complex interplay between psychotic experiences and broader mental health outcomes.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent investigations have examined the relationship between premenstrual symptoms and psychotic-like experiences in non-clinical adult samples. Severity of premenstrual disorder symptoms was found to predict the frequency of subclinical psychotic phenomena, with anxiety and depression partially mediating the association specifically for negative psychotic-like experiences. Positive psychotic-like experiences appeared directly associated with hormonal symptom intensity. These results highlight shared psychopathological pathways between affective fluctuations and attenuated psychotic symptoms, underscoring the need for longitudinal studies to clarify causal mechanisms and inform targeted interventions.

Psychotic Experiences and Mental Health Outcomes publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in psychotic experiences and mental health outcomes across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs): Subclinical perceptual or cognitive events resembling psychosis that occur in non-clinical populations.

Attenuated symptoms: Milder forms of psychotic phenomena that fall below diagnostic thresholds for a psychotic disorder.

Mediation: Statistical process by which a third variable explains the relationship between an independent and dependent variable.

Resilience: The capacity to adapt to adversity and reduce the impact of risk factors on mental health outcomes.

Latent class analysis: A statistical method for identifying unobserved subgroups within a population based on response patterns.

References

1. Clinical presentation of psychotic experiences in patients with common mental disorders attending the UK primary care improving access to psychological therapies (IAPT) Programme. Journal of Affective Disorders (2023).
2. Pixels and perception: Mapping the association between digital media and psychotic-like experiences in adolescents. Comprehensive Psychiatry (2024).
3. Moderating and mediating effects of resilience between childhood trauma and psychotic-like experiences among college students. BMC Psychiatry (2024).
4. Depression and anxiety mediate the relationship between the retrospectively measured symptoms of premenstrual disorders and negative but not positive psychotic-like experiences. Scientific Reports (2023).
5. Prevalence and correlates of psychotic-like experiences in the general population. Schizophrenia Research (2019).