What is it about?
We wanted to know whether the small area environment - typically our neighbourhoods - were associated with different mental health symptoms in people experiencing a psychotic disorder. We found that more densely populated environments predicted more hallucinations, less depression, but no differences in other symptoms like paranoia or mania.
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Why is it important?
If the environment predicts certain symptoms, but not others, it might reveal clues as to the causes of certain features of psychotic diosrders
Perspectives
To our knowledge, this was the first study of its kind to consider the role of the environment on specific symptom dimensions. The relationship between more densely populated environments and more hallucinations suggests that social perception abnormalities may be directly related to the level of social stimuli in the environment. However, our data were cross-sectional, meaning the exposure (the environment) was measured at the same time as the outcome (symptoms), so a causal association cannot be shown in this study.
Dr James B Kirkbride
University College London
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The effect of the environment on symptom dimensions in the first episode of psychosis: a multilevel study, Psychological Medicine, January 2014, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0033291713003188.
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