Psychotic Experiences, Childhood Trauma, and Alcohol-Related Self-Efficacy in a Nonpsychiatric Sample of Individuals in Alcohol Dependence Treatment: A Pilot Study

There is a substantial co-occurrence between alcohol dependence and psychiatric symptoms. Moreover, research suggests that such symptoms, including psychotic experiences, are continuously distributed in the population. There is a lack of research concerning psychotic symptoms in otherwise non-psychiatric populations with alcohol dependence. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of psychotic symptoms in this population, and to relate this to childhood trauma and management of alcohol dependence. From a population with alcohol dependence two sub-groups were extracted, with low and high levels of psychotic experiences respectively. These were compared concerning childhood trauma and management of dependence using ANOVA, and the resulting model was examined using binary logistic regression. There was a sub-group of 14,3% of the population with elevated levels of psychotic experiences. This group displayed higher degree of self-reported childhood trauma as well as difficulties in managing alcohol dependence, when compared to a sub-group with low levels of psychotic experiences. There may be a substantial sub-group in the otherwise non-psychiatric population with alcohol dependence, with significant difficulties concerning psychotic symptoms, trauma and management of dependence, where anxiety may have a mediating function. If so, this group calls for broader assessment and treatment than standard alcohol interventions.