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

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. 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. 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. The finding of association between traumatic exposure and PLEs calls for greater attention to the diversity of negative mental health outcomes in conflict-affected populations.