Hallucinations and delusions, the classic symptoms of psychosis, have recently been documented to occur at a much higher prevalence in the general population than clinically diagnosed psychotic disorder.1 A meta-analysis of prevalence studies of psychotic symptoms in young people demonstrated a median prevalence of 17% in children aged 9-12 years and 7.5% in adolescents aged 13-18 years.2 As the term suggests, psychotic symptoms have typically been considered to relate to psychotic disorder. Indeed, research has shown that members of the general population who report psychotic symptoms share a wide range of risk factors with people with schizophrenia (see Kelleher & Cannon for review), [3][4][5][6][7][8][9] and young people who report psychotic symptoms have been found to be at increased risk of psychotic disorder in adulthood.10,11 Individuals who report psychotic symptoms are also more likely to report non-psychotic psychopathological symptoms, especially symptoms of depression; [12][13][14][15][16] Yung et al, for example, reported that individuals who had a diagnosed depressive disorder endorsed an increased number of psychotic symptoms on the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences questionnaire compared with controls.17 Bartels-Velthuis et al found that young adolescents who disclosed psychotic symptoms were approximately 3-5 times more likely to score in the clinical psychopathology range on the parent-completed Child Behavior Checklist. Community-based studies to date, however, have relied mainly upon questionnaires to assess psychotic symptoms and have involved limited data on non-psychotic psychopathology. In addition, although research suggests that psychotic symptoms are more common in younger than in older children, 2 there is a lack of information on whether there are differences in the clinical significance of psychotic symptoms across different stages of adolescence. In an attempt to improve our understanding of the clinical significance of psychotic symptoms in the general population we examined data from four population studies, comprising two large population surveys and two in-depth clinical interview studies of psychotic symptoms. The aims of this work were to investigate whether psychotic symptoms predicted nonpsychotic clinical diagnoses, and if so, which disorders; to investigate whether psychotic symptoms predicted more clinically severe disorder in terms of comorbid psychopathology (i.e. having more than one diagnosis); and to investigate whether the significance of psychotic symptoms varied as a function of age. MethodSurvey studies Background Epidemiological research has shown that hallucinations and delusions, the classic symptoms of psychosis, are far more prevalent in the population than actual psychotic disorder. These symptoms are especially prevalent in childhood and adolescence. Longitudinal research has demonstrated that psychotic symptoms in adolescence increase the risk of psychotic disorder in adulthood. There has been a lack of research, however, on the immediate clini...

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In this cross-sectional study, physical activity, sport participation and associations with wellbeing, anxiety and depressive symptoms were examined in a large representative sample of European adolescents. A school-based survey was completed by 11,110 adolescents from ten European countries who took part in the SEYLE (Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe) study. The questionnaire included items assessing physical activity, sport participation and validated instruments assessing well-being (WHO-5), depressive symptoms (BDI-II) and anxiety (SAS). Multilevel mixed effects linear regression was used to examine associations between physical activity/sport participation and mental health measures. A minority of the sample (17.9% of boys and 10.7% of girls; p<0.0005) reported sufficient activity based on WHO guidelines (60 minutes+ daily).The mean number of days of at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity in the past two weeks was 7.5±4.4 among boys and 5.9 days±4.3 among girls. Frequency of activity was positively correlated with wellbeing and negatively correlated with both anxiety and depressive symptoms, up to a threshold of moderate frequency of activity. In a multi-level mixed effects model more frequent physical activity and participation in sport were both found to independently contribute to greater wellbeing and lower levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms in both sexes. Increasing activity levels and sports participation among the least active young people should be a target of community and school-based interventions to promote well-being. There does not appear to be an additional benefit to mental health associated with meeting the WHO-recommended levels of activity.

These results suggest high lifetime prevalence of D-SIB in European adolescents. Prevalence as well as psychosocial correlates seems to be significantly influenced by both gender and country. These results support the need for a multidimensional approach to better understand the development of SIB and facilitate culturally adapted prevention/intervention.

After a series of conservative adjustments, the authors found that exposure to childhood trauma predicted newly incident psychotic experiences. The study also provides the first direct evidence that cessation of traumatic experiences leads to a reduced incidence of psychotic experiences.