Prevalence of co-occurring severe depression and psychotic symptoms in college students and its relationship with childhood maltreatment

Abstract

BackgroundIt has been demonstrated that childhood maltreatment (CM) is associated with an increased risk of depression and psychotic symptoms. However, there is still a lack of studies on the prevalence of co-occurring severe depression and psychotic symptoms (CSDPS) and the association between CM and CSDPS among college students. ObjectiveWe aim to investigate the prevalence and demographic distribution of CSDPS among Chinese college students and to examine its relationship with CM. Participants and settingA total of 7351 college students aged 18 and above completed the survey. Finally, 6854 valid questionnaires were included for further analysis. MethodsThe Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and the item for witnessing domestic violence were used to assess the CM. The Prodromal Questionnaire-16 and the depression subscale of the Depression Anxiety and Stress-21 scale were used to assess psychotic symptoms and depressive symptoms. ResultsThe prevalence of CSDPS was 1.47 % among the college students. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that emotional abuse and emotional neglect were associated with an increased risk of CSDPS (all p < 0.05). The risk of CSDPS was dramatically increased for individuals who had experienced ≥3 types of CM (OR = 22.929, p < 0.001), as compared to those who had experienced 1‐2 types of CM (OR = 4.452, p < 0.001) and those without the experience of CM. ConclusionCM was found to be associated with an increased risk of CSDPS among the college students. Notably, experiencing more types of CM was also associated with a higher risk of CSDPS.