Psychotic disorders in sexually abused youth: A prospective matched-cohort study

Child sexual abuse has been identified as a potential risk factor for developing a psychotic disorder. However, little is known about the prevalence of psychotic disorders in youth who were sexually abused during adolescence and young adulthood. Gender differences also remain unclear. This study used administrative databases from a Child Protection Agency and a public health care system. It aimed to investigate the prevalence of psychotic disorders in sexually abused youth between the first substantiated report of sexual abuse and the beginning of adulthood. A second objective was to assess gender differences. Administrative health data for 882 sexually abused youth were compared with 882 matched controls from the general population over a 13-year period using conditional generalized linear mixed models. Stratified analyses by gender (group comparison) and group (gender comparison) were also performed. Sexually abused youth were 10 times more at risk of receiving a diagnosis of psychotic disorder than youth from the general population. There was no gender difference in the prevalence of psychotic disorders among sexually abused youth. These results highlight the importance of targeted prevention of psychotic disorders among sexually abused youth. Future studies should investigate risk factors and developmental trajectories of psychotic disorders in this population.