Psychotic-like experiences in a conflict-affected population: a cross-sectional study in South Sudan

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 conflictaffected
populations.