title: The association between trauma and delusional-like experiences.
abstract: Individuals exposed to childhood trauma are more likely to report delusional-like experiences (DLE). This study examined the association between trauma exposure and DLE in a large community sample, investigating different trauma types and age-at-first-exposure to trauma. Subjects were from the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2007. Associations between DLE and (i) exposure to different trauma types and (ii) age-at-first-exposure were assessed using logistic regression with adjustments for potential confounding factors. 8.4% of 8773 subjects reported DLE and almost 75% reported at least one traumatic event. Exposure to a traumatic event was significantly associated with more than twice the odds of delusional-like experiences and exposure to more types of trauma increased the likelihood of DLE in a dose dependent fashion. The majority of the individual trauma items were independently associated with any endorsement of DLE. First exposure of trauma in childhood, adolescence and adulthood was all associated with DLE. Further understanding of biological and cognitive pathways is required to unravel the association between trauma exposure and delusional-like experiences.
authors.affiliation: Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, The Park Centre for Mental Health, Wacol, QLD 4076, Australia.
authors.forename: Sukanta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saha
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Varghese
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Slade
authors.forename: Louisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Degenhardt
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mills
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McGrath
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Scott
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D003702:Delusions / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult