Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Department of Research and Development, Oslo University Hospital, Ulleval Kirkeveien 166, Building 20, 0407, Oslo, Norway.
PURPOSE: This study investigates the prevalence of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) and examines exposure to potentially traumatic events and other relevant risk factors for PLEs in the general population of a conflict-affected, low-income country.
METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional community based study of four Greater Bahr el Ghazal States, South Sudan (n = 1200). The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire was applied to investigate exposure to potentially traumatic events. The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview was used to detect PLEs.
RESULTS: The estimated prevalence of lifetime PLEs was 23.3 % and the rate of PLEs which were evaluated as bizarre was 9.5 %. Exposure to higher number of potentially traumatic events, younger age, rural residency, being unemployed, not having a regular income and having traditional religion were significantly associated with having PLEs. PLEs were significantly associated with reporting of psychological distress when controlling for other covariates.
CONCLUSIONS: The finding of association between traumatic exposure and PLEs calls for greater attention to the diversity of negative mental health outcomes in conflict-affected populations.