Letter to the Editor: Beyond childhood trauma - stressful events early and later in life in relation to psychotic experiences

According to meta-analytic data, exposure to adult stressful life events is associated with a higher risk of subsequent onset of a psychotic disorder or psychotic experiences, compared with controls [odds ratio (OR) 3.19, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.15-4.75] (Beards et al. 2013). In a population-based 10-year prospective study, only the highest levels of exposure to adversity ([egs]10 recent events) was related to psychotic symptoms, and this relationship was stronger in individuals who were maltreated during childhood (Lataster et al. 2012). [...]recently, studies rarely considered the subjective interpretation of life events (Beards et al. 2013). Each percentage-point increase in helplessness score increased the odds for psychosis with 3.1% (OR 1.03) and with 1.8% for non-clinical psychotic experiences (OR 1.02). [...]our findings support the hypothesis that both childhood trauma and stressful events later in life contribute to a general vulnerability for psychotic experiences that may or may not be part of a psychotic disorder.