Background: Schizophrenia first appears in adolescence, in boys at an earlier age than girls. The interpretation of this key epidemiological finding crucially depends on whether similar age-related sex differences exist in the expression of associated, subclinical psychosis-like experiences.
Methods: Findings are based on a population sample of 2548 adolescents and young adults aged 17–28. Subjects were assessed with the core psychosis sections on delusions and hallucinations of the Munich- Composite International Diagnostic Interview.
Results: The risk of subclinical psychotic experiences was significantly higher for males in the younger half of the cohort (17–21 years), but similar in the older half (22–28 years).
Conclusions: These findings suggest that normal maturational changes in adolescence with differential age of onset in boys and girls cause the expression of psychosis, the extreme of which is schizophrenia.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:26811 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Spauwen, Janneke, Krabbendam, Lydia, Lieb, Roselind, Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich, van Os, Jim |
| Publisher | Technische Universität Dresden |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Source | Schizophrenia Research, Bd. 62 (2003), Nr. 1–2, S. 45–49, ISSN: 0920-9964 |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 10.1016/S0920-9964(03)00063-X |
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