title: Help-seeking in people with exceptional experiences: results from a general population sample.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Exceptional experiences (EE) are experiences that deviate from ordinary experiences, for example precognition, supernatural appearances, or déjà vues. In spite of the high frequency of EE in the general population, little is known about their effect on mental health and about the way people cope with EE. This study aimed to assess the quality and quantity of EE in persons from the Swiss general population, to identify the predictors of their help-seeking, and to determine how many of them approach the mental health system.
  
  
  METHODS
  An on-line survey was used to evaluate a quota sample of 1580 persons representing the Swiss general population with respect to gender, age, and level of education. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to integrate help-seeking, self-reported mental disorder, and other variables in a statistical model designed to identify predictors of help-seeking in persons with EE.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Almost all participants (91%) experienced at least one EE. Generally, help-seeking was more frequent when the EE were of negative valence. Help-seeking because of EE was less frequent in persons without a self-reported mental disorder (8.6%) than in persons with a disorder (35.1%) (OR = 5.7). Even when frequency and attributes of EE were controlled for, people without a disorder sought four times less often help because of EE than expected. Persons with a self-reported diagnosis of mental disorder preferred seeing a mental health professional. Multinomial regression revealed a preference for healers in women with less education, who described themselves as believing and also having had more impressive EE.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Persons with EE who do not indicate a mental disorder less often sought help because of EE than persons who indicated a mental disorder. We attribute this imbalance to a high inhibition threshold to seek professional help. Moreover, especially less educated women did not approach the mental health care system as often as other persons with EE, but preferred seeing a healer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zürich University Hospital for Psychiatry , Zurich , Switzerland ; Collegium Helveticum , Zurich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Landolt
authors.affiliation: Collegium Helveticum , Zurich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Amrei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wittwer
authors.affiliation: Collegium Helveticum , Zurich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wyss
authors.affiliation: Collegium Helveticum , Zurich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Lui
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Unterassner
authors.affiliation: Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health , Freiburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fach
authors.affiliation: Collegium Helveticum , Zurich , Switzerland ; Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Basel , Basel , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Krummenacher
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brugger
authors.affiliation: Collegium Helveticum , Zurich , Switzerland ; Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland ; Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), Institute for Biomedical Engineering, ETH Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Helene
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Haker
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Center for Social Psychiatry, Zürich University Hospital for Psychiatry , Zurich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Wolfram
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kawohl
authors.affiliation: Collegium Helveticum , Zurich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Pius August
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Schubiger
authors.affiliation: Collegium Helveticum , Zurich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Folkers
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zürich University Hospital for Psychiatry , Zurich , Switzerland ; Collegium Helveticum , Zurich , Switzerland ; Leuphana University , Lüneburg , Germany ; Laboratory of Neuroscience (LIM27), Institute of Psychiatry, University of São Paulo , São Paulo , Brazil.
authors.forename: Wulf
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rössler
keywords: epidemiology; exceptional experiences; help-seeking; psychiatric disorder; public health