Childhood psychotic symptoms: link between non-consensual sex and later psychosis

Numerous studies have established a link between trauma early in life and psychosis in adulthood. ¹ In particular, non-consensual sex in childhood appears to robustly predict the occurrence of psychotic symptoms later in life. ² Bebbington et al ³ add to this literature by demonstrating a large potential role of non-consensual sex in the development of psychosis in a large representative sample of English adults. However, although the authors take several steps to adjust for residual confounding, they make no attempt to correct for the presence of psychotic symptoms in childhood. This is a potentially critical error as reverse causation remains a distinct possibility. Children who exhibit psychotic symptoms may be at high risk of sexual victimisation owing to their poor social skills, paucity of social relationships, and for numerous other reasons. Thus, initial mental health may explain the link between sexual abuse and adult psychosis.

In an analysis of over 3500 British adults reported elsewhere, ⁴ I showed that non-consensual sex at age 16 or earlier placed females at a substantial risk of auditory and visual hallucinations at age 29 (OR = 8.51, 95% CI 0.99–73.28). However, females who experienced hallucinations in childhood were also likely to have been forced to have sex by age 16. When the presence of initial psychotic symptoms was taken into account the link between non-consensual sex in childhood and hallucinations in adulthood was diminished to non-significance (OR = 2.43, 95% CI 0.09–62.88). These findings suggest that childhood sexual abuse may not be related to psychosis in adulthood over and above psychotic symptoms in childhood, at least in the domain of visual and auditory hallucinations.

Thus, when patent non-causal explanations have not been tested, vigilance is required prior to inferring that the link between sexual abuse and psychosis may be causal. Although the design utilised by Bebbington et al was cross-sectional, it would have been possible to ask participants to retrospectively gauge the age at onset of their psychotic symptoms. This would have allowed the researchers to produce a more methodologically robust assessment of the potential causal effect of sexual abuse.

Bebbington et al also identified anxiety and depression as partial mediators of the relation between sexual abuse and psychosis. However, poor initial mental health may have determined both childhood abuse and later experiences of depression, anxiety and psychosis. It is therefore of the utmost importance that those assessing the role of environmental risk factors in predicting psychosis endeavour to assess the presence of psychosis and subclinical psychotic symptoms and mental health more generally at baseline. This will allow the contribution of early environmental risk factors to psychosis to be evaluated and will provide a robust evidence base for clear policy-relevant recommendations.