TY - JOUR
T1 - Childhood cognitive function and adult psychopathology
T2 - associations with psychotic and non-psychotic symptoms in the general population
AU - Barnett, Jennifer H
AU - McDougall, Fiona
AU - Xu, Man K
AU - Croudace, Tim J
AU - Richards, Marcus
AU - Jones, Peter B
PY - 2012/8
Y1 - 2012/8
N2 - BACKGROUND: Lower cognitive ability in childhood is associated with increased risk of future schizophrenia, but its relationship with adult psychotic-like experiences and other psychopathology is less understood. AIMS: To investigate whether this childhood risk factor is shared with adult subclinical psychiatric phenotypes including psychotic-like experiences and general psychiatric morbidity. METHOD: A population-based sample of participants born in Great Britain during 1 week in March 1946 was contacted up to 20 times between ages 6 weeks and 53 years. Cognition was assessed at ages 8, 11 and 15 years using a composite of age-appropriate verbal and non-verbal cognitive tests. At age 53 years, psychotic-like experiences were self-reported by 2918 participants using four items from the Psychosis Screening Questionnaire and general psychiatric morbidity was assessed using the scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). RESULTS: Psychotic-like experiences were reported by 22% of participants, and were highly comorbid with other psychopathology. Their presence in adults was significantly associated with poorer childhood cognitive test scores at ages 8 and 15 years, and marginally so at age 11 years. In contrast, high GHQ scores were not associated with poorer childhood cognition after adjustment for the presence of psychotic-like experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Psychotic and non-psychotic psychopathologic symptoms are highly comorbid in the general population. Lower childhood cognitive ability is a risk factor for psychotic-like experiences in mid-life; these phenomena may be one end of a continuum of phenotypic expression driven by variation in early neurodevelopment.
AB - BACKGROUND: Lower cognitive ability in childhood is associated with increased risk of future schizophrenia, but its relationship with adult psychotic-like experiences and other psychopathology is less understood. AIMS: To investigate whether this childhood risk factor is shared with adult subclinical psychiatric phenotypes including psychotic-like experiences and general psychiatric morbidity. METHOD: A population-based sample of participants born in Great Britain during 1 week in March 1946 was contacted up to 20 times between ages 6 weeks and 53 years. Cognition was assessed at ages 8, 11 and 15 years using a composite of age-appropriate verbal and non-verbal cognitive tests. At age 53 years, psychotic-like experiences were self-reported by 2918 participants using four items from the Psychosis Screening Questionnaire and general psychiatric morbidity was assessed using the scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). RESULTS: Psychotic-like experiences were reported by 22% of participants, and were highly comorbid with other psychopathology. Their presence in adults was significantly associated with poorer childhood cognitive test scores at ages 8 and 15 years, and marginally so at age 11 years. In contrast, high GHQ scores were not associated with poorer childhood cognition after adjustment for the presence of psychotic-like experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Psychotic and non-psychotic psychopathologic symptoms are highly comorbid in the general population. Lower childhood cognitive ability is a risk factor for psychotic-like experiences in mid-life; these phenomena may be one end of a continuum of phenotypic expression driven by variation in early neurodevelopment.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864535446&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1192/bjp.bp.111.102053
DO - 10.1192/bjp.bp.111.102053
M3 - Article
C2 - 22743845
SN - 1472-1465
VL - 201
SP - 124
EP - 130
JO - The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science
JF - The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science
IS - 2
ER -