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S48

24th European Congress of Psychiatry / European Psychiatry 33S (2016) S18–S55

Subthreshold psychotic experiences in the general

population. Predictors for the development of

psychotic disorders?

S94

Exploring full-blown psychotic

experiences in ‘non-need for care’

populations: Findings from the

UNIQUE Study

E. Peters

1 ,

, T. Ward

1

, M. Jackson

2

, C. Morgan

3

, P. Mc Guire

4

,

P. Woodruff

5

, P. Garety

1

1

Institute of Psychiatry-Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s

College London (KCL), Psychology Department, London, United

Kingdom

2

Bangor University, School of Psychology, Bangor, United Kingdom

3

IoPPN-KCL, Health Services & Population Research, London, United

Kingdom

4

IoPPN-KCL, Psychosis Studies, London, United Kingdom

5

University of Sheffield, Academic Psychiatry, Sheffield, United

Kingdom

Corresponding author.

Background

People displaying persistent, full-blown psychotic

experiences without a need-for-care in the general population are

an ideal group to investigate to differentiate those factors that

are linked to distress and dysfunction from those that are merely

associated with benign anomalous experiences. The UNIQUE study

investigated the cognitive and social processes predicted by cog-

nitive models of psychosis to differentiate between benign and

pathological outcomes of psychotic experiences (PEs).

Method

Two hundred and fifty-nine individuals were recruited

(84 clinical participants with PEs; 92 non-clinical participants with

PEs; 83 controls without PEs) from urban (South-East London)

and rural (North Wales) UK sites. The three groups were com-

pared on clinical and psychological measures, on reasoning tasks,

and on their appraisals of experimental tasks inducing anomalous

experiences (of thought interference symptoms and auditory hal-

lucinations).

Results

The clinical picture demonstrated a distinctive pattern

of similarities and differences on PEs between the clinical and non-

clinical groups, while their demographic and psychological profiles

were markedly different. As predicted, the clinical group showed a

‘jump-to-conclusions’ reasoning style, and endorsed more threat-

ening appraisals ratings of the experimentally-induced anomalous

experiences than the non-clinical group, who did not differ from

the controls.

Conclusions

The results of this study identified a number of spe-

cific factors that may be protective against transition to psychosis

in individuals with persistent PEs. They also provide robust exper-

imental evidence for the key role of appraisals in determining

outcome, as postulated by cognitive models of psychosis.

Funding

Medical research Council, UK.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their decla-

ration of competing interest.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.910

S95

Prevention of psychotic disorders in

the general population

W. Rössler

University of Zurich, Psychiatric University Hospital, Zurich,

Switzerland

Subthreshold psychotic experiences are widely reported within

otherwise healthy populations. Their phenomenology is broad and

very heterogeneous ranging from meaningful coincidences and

precognitive dreams over haunting to out-of-body experiences and

visual as well as auditory hallucinations.

Although creative aspects of these experiences are implied too, a

similarity in form and content to positive symptoms in schizophre-

nia (e.g., delusion, disordered thought, and hallucinations) or

schizotypy (e.g. magical thinking, unusual perceptual experiences,

ideas of reference or paranoid ideation) seems to be obvious. How-

ever, the borderline between normal and pathological experiences

and behaviour is unclear.

The so called “continuum approach” assumes that schizophrenia or

schizotypy are not discrete or categorical illness entities. It implies

a gradient in the severity of the symptoms, ranging from healthy

population to full-blown schizophrenia. As such, psychotic signs are

no longer restricted to formal diagnoses according to DSM or ICD,

but would, instead, complete the spectrum of psychological and

biological features that characterize individual variations among

human beings.

Can subthreshold psychotic experiences be integrated in this con-

tinuum? Do individuals indicating such experiences lack some

social cognitive abilities and are particularly vulnerable to false

inferences in their social world. How are these experiences related

to increased neural activity or an abnormal dopaminergic neuro-

transmission?

These and similar questions will be discussed in the presentation.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his declaration

of competing interest.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.911

S96

Psychotic experiences as precursors in

schizophrenia? Findings from a

population-based sample in Germany

(DEGS1-MH)

C. Schmidt-Kraepelin

Medical Faculty, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy,

Düsseldorf, Germany

There are only a few studies that have studied the prevalence of

psychotic experiences (PEs) in a representative population-based

sample and a broad range of age. The association and predictive

role of PEs in the context of psychotic and other mental disorders

remains a subject of discussion. The Mental Health Module of the

German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Adults is the

first wave of a German health monitoring survey describing:

– the distribution and frequency, the severity and the impairments

of a wide range of mental disorders;

– risk factors as well as patterns of help-seeking and health care

utilization;

– associations between mental and somatic disorders.

A total of 4483 participants participated in the mental health

section of the survey. The Composite International Diagnostic Inter-

view, the Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale and the Peter’s Delusion

Inventory were used to assess PEs by clinically experienced inter-

viewers. We can confirm and extend previous findings for younger

age groups that PEs are very frequent psychopathological expres-

sions in the general population across genders and all age groups.

PEs rates were elevated among those with other mental disorders,

particularly among possible psychotic disorders, PTSD and affec-

tive disorders. This points to the relevant role of PEs as a marker for

psychopathology and mental disorders. Future prospective studies

will have to focus on specific properties of psychotic experiences

such as their appraisal or underlying social influences to determine

their significance for the prediction of psychotic and other mental

disorders.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his declaration

of competing interest.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.912