Prevalencia y Factores Asociados a los Síntomas Psicóticos en Andalucía

Abstract

Delusional and hallucinatory experiences are considered central psychotic symptoms (PS) present in the general population in all severity levels. Population-based studies reporting the presence of PS show that the prevalence of psychotic symptoms in the community is higher than previously thought. A recent meta-analysis suggests that psychotic symptoms in population-based studies are up to ten times higher than the prevalence of diagnosed psychotic disorders, with an estimated average prevalence of 7.2%. There is a relative scarcity of studies on SP in Spain and to our knowledge, none have been conducted on the Andalusian population. The aim of this thesis is to estimate the prevalence rate of PS in Andalusia based on data from a representative sample participating in the PISMA-ep cross-sectional study and on social correlations such as autonomy, social functioning, social support and suicide. Prior to this study, a pilot study was carried out in the province of Granada, the GranadΣp study, in which the prevalence of PS was measured as well as correlations such as Sociodemographic factors, cognitive level, cannabis use, personality traits and child abuse. This doctoral thesis is the result of several research works on psychotic symptoms carried out by the PhD student since 2014, under the supervision of the thesis director. The main content of this thesis is composed of the findings of the epidemiological studies PISMAep and GranadΣp on the prevalence and factors associated with psychotic symptoms in the Andalusian population. A previous review on the subject provides the theoretical support to the Introduction section. A total of two articles have been published in relation to this thesis, all of them in journals indexed in the JCR (Journal Citation Report). We hope that our findings can contribute to the prevention and treatment of psychotic symptoms.