Abstract
PurposePsychosis has been associated with adult victimisation. However, it remains unclear whether psychosis predicts incident adult victimisation, or whether adult victimisation predicts incident psychosis. Furthermore, a moderating effect of childhood victimisation on the association between psychosis and adult victimisation has not been investigated.MethodsThe longitudinal association between baseline psychotic experiences and six-year incidence of adult victimisation was assessed in a prospective general population cohort of 6646 adults using logistic regression analysis. The association between baseline adult victimisation and six-year incidence of psychotic experiences was examined as well. Furthermore, the moderating effect of childhood victimisation on these bidirectional associations was analysed.ResultsPsychotic experiences and childhood victimisation were both associated with an increased risk of incident adult victimisation. However, this was through competing pathways, as suggested by a negative interaction between psychotic experiences and childhood victimisation. Baseline adult victimisation and childhood victimisation both independently increased the risk of incident psychotic experiences, but there was no interaction between adult victimisation and childhood victimisation.ConclusionsPsychosis and victimisation are interconnected throughout the life course. Childhood victimisation is connected to psychosis through two pathways: one direct and one indirect through adult victimisation. In individuals without childhood victimisation, psychosis and adult victimisation bidirectionally impact on each other.
Highlights
Psychosis has been associated with an increased risk of violence perpetration [1,2,3,4,5]
The longitudinal association between baseline psychotic experiences and six-year incidence of adult victimisation was assessed in a prospective general population cohort of 6646 adults using logistic regression analysis
Psychotic experiences and childhood victimisation were both associated with an increased risk of incident adult victimisation
Summary
Psychosis has been associated with an increased risk of violence perpetration [1,2,3,4,5]. Victimisation is prevalent [9], both during childhood [10,11,12] and adulthood [13,14,15]. Various forms of childhood victimisation, including sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse [16] and being bullied [17], have been associated with psychosis in the literature [10,11,12]. Childhood victimisation has been associated with both psychotic experiences (PE) [10] and full-blown psychotic disorder [11, 12], covering the complete spectrum of the extended psychosis phenotype [18,19,20]. Most research to date has focussed on the hypothesis that childhood victimisation is a risk factor for
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