Characterization of Psychotic Experiences in Adolescence Using the Specific Psychotic Experiences Questionnaire: Findings From a Study of 5000 16-Year-Old Twins

We aimed to characterize multiple psychotic experiences, each assessed on a spectrum of severity (ie, quantitatively), in a general population sample of adolescents. Over five thousand 16-year-old twins and their parents completed the newly devised Specific Psychotic Experiences Questionnaire (SPEQ); a subsample repeated it approximately 9 months later. SPEQ was investigated in terms of factor structure, intersubscale correlations, frequency of endorsement and reported distress, reliability and validity, associations with traits of anxiety, depression and personality, and sex differences. Principal component analysis revealed a 6-component solution: paranoia, hallucinations, cognitive disorganization, grandiosity, anhedonia, and parent-rated negative symptoms. These components formed the basis of 6 subscales. Correlations between different experiences were low to moderate. All SPEQ subscales, except Grandiosity, correlated significantly with traits of anxiety, depression, and neuroticism. Scales showed good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity. Girls endorsed more paranoia, hallucinations, and cognitive disorganization; boys reported more grandiosity and anhedonia and had more parent-rated negative symptoms. As in adults at high risk for psychosis and with psychotic disorders, psychotic experiences in adolescents are characterized by multiple components. The study of psychotic experiences as distinct dimensional quantitative traits is likely to prove an important strategy for future research, and the SPEQ is a self- and parent-report questionnaire battery that embodies this approach.

[1]  N. Andreasen.  Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms , 2014 .

[2]  P. Mcguire,et al.  Outreach and support in South London (OASIS), 2001–2011: Ten years of early diagnosis and treatment for young individuals at high clinical risk for psychosis , 2013, European Psychiatry.

[3]  J. van os,et al.  Psychiatric Diagnosis Revisited: Towards a System of Staging and Profiling Combining Nomothetic and Idiographic Parameters of Momentary Mental States , 2013, PloS one.

[4]  P. Delespaul,et al.  Altered Transfer of Momentary Mental States (ATOMS) as the Basic Unit of Psychosis Liability in Interaction with Environment and Emotions , 2013, PloS one.

[5]  J. van os,et al.  Follow-up factor structure of schizotypy and its clinical associations in a help-seeking sample meeting ultra-high risk for psychosis criteria at baseline. , 2013, Comprehensive psychiatry.

[6]  R. Gur,et al.  The Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS): final development and validation. , 2013, The American journal of psychiatry.

[7]  P. McGuire,et al.  Comorbid Depressive and Anxiety Disorders in 509 Individuals With an At-Risk Mental State: Impact on Psychopathology and Transition to Psychosis , 2012, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[8]  R. Plomin,et al.  Twins Early Development Study (TEDS): A Genetically Sensitive Investigation of Cognitive and Behavioral Development From Childhood to Young Adulthood , 2012, Twin Research and Human Genetics.

[9]  M. Owen,et al.  Trajectories of change in self-reported psychotic-like experiences in childhood and adolescence , 2012, Schizophrenia Research.

[10]  T. Brugha,et al.  Insomnia, worry, anxiety and depression as predictors of the occurrence and persistence of paranoid thinking , 2012, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

[11]  J. Os,et al.  An updated and conservative systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological evidence on psychotic experiences in children and adults: on the pathway from proneness to persistence to dimensional expression across mental disorders , 2012, Psychological Medicine.

[12]  P. McGuire,et al.  Disorganization/cognitive and negative symptom dimensions in the at-risk mental state predict subsequent transition to psychosis. , 2012, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[13]  M. Cannon,et al.  Prevalence of psychotic symptoms in childhood and adolescence: a systematic review and meta-analysis of population-based studies , 2012, Psychological Medicine.

[14]  K. Laurens,et al.  Psychotic-like experiences and depressive symptoms in a community sample of adolescents , 2011, European Psychiatry.

[15]  J. Ormel,et al.  The structure of the extended psychosis phenotype in early adolescence--a cross-sample replication. , 2011, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[16]  A. Cohen,et al.  Social anhedonia and schizotypy in a community sample: the Maryland longitudinal study of schizotypy. , 2011, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[17]  M. Cannon,et al.  Are screening instruments valid for psychotic-like experiences? A validation study of screening questions for psychotic-like experiences using in-depth clinical interview. , 2011, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[18]  R. Gur,et al.  Toward the next generation of negative symptom assessments: the collaboration to advance negative symptom assessment in schizophrenia. , 2011, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[19]  T. Furukawa,et al.  Psychotic-like experiences are associated with violent behavior in adolescents , 2011, Schizophrenia Research.

[20]  Gail M. Williams,et al.  Psychotic-like experiences in major depression and anxiety disorders: a population-based survey in young adults. , 2011, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[21]  J. van os,et al.  Early expression of negative/disorganized symptoms predicting psychotic experiences and subsequent clinical psychosis: a 10-year study. , 2010, The American journal of psychiatry.

[22]  K. Kasai,et al.  Psychotic‐like experiences (PLEs) and mental health status in twin and singleton Japanese high school students , 2010, Early intervention in psychiatry.

[23]  P. Girardi,et al.  Psychotic-like experiences and correlation with distress and depressive symptoms in a community sample of adolescents and young adults , 2010, Schizophrenia Research.

[24]  M. Cannon,et al.  Psychotic-like experiences in the general population: characterizing a high-risk group for psychosis , 2010, Psychological Medicine.

[25]  A. Caspi,et al.  Etiological and clinical features of childhood psychotic symptoms: results from a birth cohort. , 2010, Archives of general psychiatry.

[26]  F. Rijsdijk,et al.  Phenotypic and genetic differentiation of anxiety‐related behaviors in middle childhood , 2009, Depression and anxiety.

[27]  A. Yung,et al.  Psychotic-Like Experiences in a Community Sample of Adolescents: Implications for the Continuum Model of Psychosis and Prediction of Schizophrenia , 2009, The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry.

[28]  M. Nordentoft,et al.  A comparison of selected risk factors for unipolar depressive disorder, bipolar affective disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia from a danish population-based cohort. , 2007, The Journal of clinical psychiatry.

[29]  A. Beck,et al.  Cognition Checklist for Mania—Revised , 2006, Psychiatry Research.

[30]  O. John,et al.  Anticipatory and consummatory components of the experience of pleasure: A scale development study , 2006 .

[31]  T. Widiger,et al.  Psychometric Properties of an Abbreviated Instrument of the Five-Factor Model , 2006, Assessment.

[32]  H. Ellis,et al.  The Cardiff Anomalous Perceptions Scale (CAPS): a new validated measure of anomalous perceptual experience. , 2006, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[33]  A. Cohen,et al.  The structure of negative symptoms within schizophrenia: implications for assessment. , 2006, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[34]  J. Os,et al.  Childhood victimisation and developmental expression of non-clinical delusional ideation and hallucinatory experiences , 2006, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

[35]  O. Mason,et al.  Short scales for measuring schizotypy , 2005, Schizophrenia Research.

[36]  G. Dunn,et al.  Psychological investigation of the structure of paranoia in a non-clinical population , 2005, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[37]  J. Os,et al.  Sex differences in psychosis: normal or pathological? , 2003, Schizophrenia Research.

[38]  A. Caspi,et al.  Children's self-reported psychotic symptoms and adult schizophreniform disorder: a 15-year longitudinal study. , 2000, Archives of general psychiatry.

[39]  N. Martin,et al.  Self-report psychiatric symptoms in twins and their nontwin relatives: are twins different? , 1995, American journal of medical genetics.

[40]  Adrian Angold,et al.  Development of a Short Questionnaire for Use in Epidemiological Studies of Depression in Children and Adolescents: Factor Composition and Structure Across Development. , 1995 .

[41]  Rolf A. Peterson,et al.  Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index , 1991 .

[42]  N. Andreasen.  The Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS): Conceptual and Theoretical Foundations , 1989, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[43]  N. Mimica,et al.  Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS)* , 1989, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[44]  T. McGlashan,et al.  The psychosis high-risk state: a comprehensive state-of-the-art review. , 2013, JAMA psychiatry.

[45]  P. Buckley.  Cannabis, COMT and psychotic experiences , 2013 .

[46]  J. Os,et al.  Evidence that onset of clinical psychosis is an outcome of progressively more persistent subclinical psychotic experiences: an 8-year cohort study. , 2011, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[47]  P. Garety,et al.  Measuring delusional ideation: the 21-item Peters et al. Delusions Inventory (PDI). , 2004, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[48]  R. de Graaf,et al.  Neuroticism and low self-esteem as risk factors for psychosis , 2002, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.