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Life Events and Psychosis

Initial Results from the Camberwell Collaborative Psychosis Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Paul Bebbington ,
Soraya Wilkins ,
Peter Jones ,
Alice Foerster ,
Robin Murray ,
Brian Toone  and
Shôn Lewis
Paul Bebbington*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
Soraya Wilkins
Affiliation:
Genetics Section, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
Peter Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry and King's College Hospital, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
Alice Foerster
Affiliation:
National Institutes of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Robin Murray
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry and King's College Hospital, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
Brian Toone
Affiliation:
King's College and Maudsley Hospitals, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS
Shôn Lewis
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Psychiatry, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, London W6 8RP
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

Data from the Camberwell Collaborative Psychosis Study were used to examine the proposition that there is an excess of life events preceding the onset of psychoses of all types. Of 97 patients from the study who had episodes within the past year that were datable, 51 had developed psychotic symptoms from an essentially symptom-free state, 29 had been suffering only from neurotic symptoms, and 17 had experienced a marked exacerbation of psychotic symptoms. DSM–III diagnoses were collapsed into three major groups: 51 cases of schizophrenia; 31 cases of mania; and 14 cases of depressive psychosis. Life-event histories were taken for the six months before onset, and when these were compared with equivalent histories from a psychiatrically healthy sample from the local general population, there was a significant excess of life events, particularly in the three months before onset of psychosis. This was apparent in all groups, and remained even when events were restricted to the independent category. The excess of events began rather earlier than has been found in previous studies. In our view, this study provides some of the strongest evidence for a link between life events and the emergence of psychotic symptoms.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 162 , Issue 1 , January 1993 , pp. 72 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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