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
Systematic review and meta-analysis reveals continuity between psychotic experiences and psychotic disorders across the lifespan, indicating that risks are probabilistic.
Key Points
To evaluate epidemiological evidence regarding the phenomenological and temporal continuity between psychotic experiences and clinical psychotic disorders from youth through adulthood.
Conducted an updated and conservative systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological evidence examining psychotic experiences in children and adults.
Assessed progression along the hypothesized trajectory from proneness to persistence and dimensional expression across mental disorders.
Demonstrated compelling qualitative support for both phenomenological and temporal continuity between subclinical psychotic experiences and full psychotic disorders, establishing that this relationship is probabilistic.
Identified that methodological imprecision in epidemiological designs, measurement limitations, and the potentially epiphenomenological nature of psychotic experiences require more robust scrutiny of the continuity theory.