Department of Mental Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, P.O.Box LG 43, Legon, Accra, Ghana; Research and Grant Institute of Ghana, P.O.Box LG 1004, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, College of Humanities, University of Ghana, P.O.Box LG 84, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
Psychiatry Res. 2021 Aug;302:113991. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2021.113991. Epub 2021 May 13.
Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are subclinical psychotic symptoms that occur outside the context of sleep or are unrelated to drug use. PLEs of varying severity are reportedly very common in adolescence. However, there are concerns about whether the structure of PLEs among adolescents is latently dimensional or categorical ("taxonic"). The current study investigates the latent structure of PLEs in 1,886 adolescents recruited from senior high schools in Ghana. Four multivariate taxometric procedures (MAMBAC, MAXEIG, l-Mode and MAXSLOPE) were applied to analyze the data. Across the taxometric procedures, there was evidence that a dimensional structure underpins positive PLEs, negative PLEs and a combination of positive and negative PLEs. The findings suggest that PLEs are distributed in the adolescent population at differing degrees/severity and that evidence of discontinuity between milder and more severe PLEs is non-existent. The findings highlight the importance of incorporating a dimensional assessment of PLEs into the existing categorical approach so that differences between people can been seen as quantitative variations along the PLEs continuum.
精神病样体验（PLEs）是指在睡眠环境之外或与药物使用无关的亚临床精神病症状。据报道，在青春期，不同严重程度的 PLEs 非常常见。然而，人们担心青少年的 PLEs 结构是潜在的维度还是分类的（“分类的”）。本研究调查了加纳高中招募的 1886 名青少年的 PLEs 的潜在结构。采用了四种多元分类分析程序（MAMBAC、MAXEIG、l-Mode 和 MAXSLOPE）来分析数据。在所有的分类分析程序中，有证据表明，积极的 PLEs、消极的 PLEs 以及积极和消极的 PLEs 的组合都是基于维度结构的。研究结果表明，PLEs 在青少年人群中的分布程度/严重程度不同，轻度和重度 PLEs 之间不存在不连续性的证据。研究结果强调了将 PLEs 的维度评估纳入现有的分类方法的重要性，以便能够将人与人之间的差异视为 PLEs 连续体上的定量变化。
