Browsing by Author "Isotupa, Mari Annukka"

Goals: The prevalence of subclinical psychotic symptoms in the normal population is 5–8%. Approximately 8% of the subclinical psychotic symptoms have been shown to predict the onset of later psychotic disorder. It can be assumed that if the number of subclinical psychotic symptoms is related to the locus of control and self-esteem, these connections would appear in the normal population at different stages of the psychosis continuum depending on the severity of the psychotic symptoms. A better understanding of these connections could in the future help distinguish those who report subclinical psychotic symptoms from those who later develop a clinically significant psychotic disorder. Methods: In this study, correlation of psychotic symptoms (UM-CIDI) with the locus of control (I.E. Scale in part) and self-esteem (RSES in part) were studied, as well as through variance analyzes of how the healthy (n = 5279) with little or more reported subclinical psychotic symptoms (n = 141 and n = 84), and persons with non-affective psychotic disorders (SCID) (n = 50) differed in relation to these factors (PSO groups). The study used the NCS-data collected from the normal population in 1990–1992. Results and Conclusions: According to previous research data, the number of psychotic symptoms was related to the external locus of control and the low self-esteem. The PSO groups differed more widely only in the case of external locus of control which based on other’s people power and control. The combined effect of psychotic symptoms and self-esteem explained the differences between groups only in relation to the above-mentioned locus of control. The results support previous findings of a more external locus of control, personalizing bias and low self-esteem related to psychotic disorders, as well as indications of their milder occurrence in the normal population already reported with psychotic symptoms. Exploratory study of causal relationships is still needed.