Abstract
Together with increased interest in the prevention of psychotic disorders and identification of the population at risk, there has been a focus on the occurrence of psychotic symptoms in generál, non-psychiatric population. The aim of our study was to fmd out current and lifetime prevalence of psychotic symptoms in urban population of the Czech Republic (ČR), and to determine the proportion of individuals with symptoms who receive psychiatrie treatment.
Study sample consisted of a stratified population sample from three largest metropolitan areas in the ČR, Prague, Brno, and Ostrava. All participants were administered the Psychosis Screening Questionnaire.
The presence of symptoms in the last year and lifetime prevalence, data on psychiatrie treatment, and diagnosis according to the M.I.N.I. were recorded. In total, 1043 subjects responded.
The most frequently reported symptom was paranoia (lifetime 6.7 %, last year 4.4 %), then hypomania (5.8 %, respective 3.5 %), strange experiences (5.1 %, respective 3.2 %), thought insertion (3.2 %, respective 1.8 %), and hallucinations (2.1 % both lifetime and last year). Lifetime prevalence of minimum l psychotic symptom was 16.6 %, last year 10.4 %.
The highest proportion of responders reported only oné symptom (12.1 % lifetime, 7.1 % last year). In the subset of individuals with a minimum of oné psychotic symptom, 59.5 % nevěr visited a psychiatrist, 76.9 % did not meet diagnostic criteria of psychotic disorder according to the M.I.N.I. and 63.6 % failed to háve any psychiatrie disorder.
Our findings support a hypothesis of the presence of psychiatrie symptoms in the generál population as a continuum of psychotic spectrum from norm to fully expressed illness.