Persistence of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) in the general population of Hong Kong

Abstract

BACKGROUND: PLEs are poorly-understood phenomenon referring to subclinical psychotic symptoms that do not meet clinical criteria, reported by individuals in the general public without psychotic disorder. Most PLEs were reported as transient in previous studies, while persistent PLEs might increase the risk of developing psychosis. Examining persistent PLEs could provide insights on PLEs’ role in the development of psychiatric disorders. METHODS: The present on-going study, which aims to examine the persistence of PLEs, is a 2-year follow-up on the 187 participants who reported PLEs in the Hong Kong Mental Morbidity Survey 2010 (HKMMS). HKMMS is a territory wide epidemiological study carried out in 2010–2013, targeted at general population aged 16-75 in Hong Kong. PLEs were assessed by the Psychosis Screen Questionnaire, where PLEs of a subject are counted as persistence when he/she endorsed ≥1 items in both baseline and follow-up. RESULTS: The mean age of the first 26 participants was 43.54 (SD=11.79), where 18 (69.23%) were female and 8 (30.77%) were male. PLEs persisted in 17 (65.38%) of them – in these 17 subjects, 4 (23.53) reported increased number of PLEs, 7 (41.18) reported decreased and 6 (35.29%) remained the same. DISCUSSION: Persistence rate of PLEs is higher in the current study when compared with previous literatures. A higher persistence rate might imply a higher rate of transition into psychosis but more data needs to be collected to make any conclusion.