Psychotic-like experiences in young offenders: Prevalence, psychiatric comorbidity and personality traits

Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) i.e., subthreshold psychotic symptoms, which include hallucinatory experiences (HE) and delusional beliefs (DB) are common in adolescents in the general population. However, much less is known about their occurrence in young offenders. To address this deficit, the current study examined PLEs and their associated features in a sample of young offenders in Russia. A semi-structured psychiatric interview (the K-SADS-PL) and self-reports were used to assess the prevalence of PLEs, psychopathology and personality traits in 370 incarcerated male young offenders (Mean age=16.4 (SD=0.9)). Chi-square tests and independent samples t-tests were employed to assess mental health problems and compare personality traits in adolescents with and without PLEs. We found that adolescents with lifetime HE (n= 94, 25.4%) and DB (n= 67, 18.1%) differed from their non-PLE counterparts in terms of having higher rates of major depression, anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance dependence and scored higher on social and attention problems, aggressive and self-destructive behavior and externalizing problems. Adolescents with lifetime DB scored higher on novelty seeking and self-transcendence, and lower on self-directedness. We also found that adolescents with HE reported a similar personality pattern, but the difference in novelty seeking was not significant. Study findings demonstrate that PLEs are common in young offenders and are associated with an increased prevalence of other mental health problems and with certain personality traits. These findings suggest there is a need for effective screening and assessment procedures to enable timely identification and potential interventions for PLEs in incarcerated youth.