Perceptive and not perceptive attenuated psychotic symptom and their association with functioning and psychopathology in a clinical sample of adolescents and young adults. An italian perspective.

In addition to representing one feature of psychotic disorders, psychotic experiences occur as isolated phenomena in otherwise healthy individuals mostly during childhood and adolescence. Fleeting hallucinations in particular are not unusual in non-psychotic young patients and may also occur in healthy young subjects. Persistence rather than prevalence of them is reported to be indicative of a more severe underlying pathology. The aim of the present study is to examine attenuated psychotic symptoms their relationship with age, functioning and psychopathology at baseline. Furthermore course of perceptive APS and their role on psychopathological and functional outcome was evaluated. Method As a part of the “Liberiamo il Futuro” project, 188 help-seeking adolescents and young adults referred to CAHMS and AMHS services were assessed. The current presence of attenuated psychotic symptoms were assessed using the SIPS. Additionally, perceptive and non-perceptive APS were differentiated. The presence of COPER and COGDIS criteria was assessed with a short version of SPI-A/SPI-CY. The continued prevalence at follow-up and association with clinical variables of subclinical hallucinations ascertained at baseline was surveyed. Results: Perceptive APS were generally less related to functional impairment, regardless of age. Conversely, non-perceptive APS were related to low functioning and the presence of an axis I disorder. Conclusions Further study is needed to understand the nature of hallucinatory experiences in young individuals and the associated risk to develop a psychotic disorder. Besides epidemiological evidence and the longitudinal course of them, careful study of psychopathology can be useful to distinguish transient hallucinatory experiences from proper psychotic hallucinations.