Stress Sensitivity and Psychotic Experiences in 39 Low- and Middle-Income CountriesShow others and affiliations
2016 (English)In: Schizophrenia Bulletin, ISSN 0586-7614, E-ISSN 1745-1701, Vol. 42, no 6, p. 1353-1362Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Stress has a central role in most theories of psychosis etiology, but the relation between stress and psychosis has rarely been examined in large population-level data sets, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. We used data from 39 countries in the World Health Survey (n = 176 934) to test the hypothesis that stress sensitivity would be associated with psychotic experiences, using logistic regression analyses. Respondents in low-income countries reported higher stress sensitivity (P < .001) and prevalence of psychotic experiences (P < .001), compared to individuals in middle-income countries. Greater stress sensitivity was associated with increased odds for psychotic experiences, even when adjusted for co-occurring anxiety and depressive symptoms: adjusted odds ratio (95% CI) = 1.17 (1.15-1.19) per unit increase in stress sensitivity (range 2-10). This association was consistent and significant across nearly every country studied, and translated into a difference in psychotic experience prevalence ranging from 6.4% among those with the lowest levels of stress sensitivity up to 22.2% among those with the highest levels. These findings highlight the generalizability of the association between psychosis and stress sensitivity in the largest and most globally representative community-level sample to date, and support the targeting of stress sensitivity as a potential component of individual- and population-level interventions for psychosis.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2016. Vol. 42, no 6, p. 1353-1362
National Category
Sociology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-29942DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbw044ISI: 000388029100011PubMedID: 27109925Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84994430037OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-29942DiVA, id: diva2:925427
2016-05-022016-05-022017-06-30Bibliographically approved