Psychotic disorder and educational achievement: a family-based analysis

Abstract

BackgroundEarly social and cognitive alterations in psychotic disorder, associated with familial liability and environmental exposures, may contribute to lower than expected educational achievement. The aims of the present study were to investigate (1) how differences in educational level between parents and their children vary across patients, their healthy siblings, and healthy controls (effect familial liability), and across two environmental risk factors for psychotic disorder: childhood trauma and childhood urban exposure (effect environment) and (2) to what degree the association between familial liability and educational differential was moderated by the environmental exposures.MethodsPatients with a diagnosis of non-affective psychotic disorder (n = 629), 552 non-psychotic siblings and 326 healthy controls from the Netherlands and Belgium were studied. Participants reported their highest level of education and that of their parents. Childhood trauma was assessed with the Dutch version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form. Urban exposure, expressed as population density, was rated across five levels.ResultsOverall, participants had a higher level of education than their parents. This difference was significantly reduced in the patient group, and the healthy siblings displayed intergenerational differences that were in between those of controls and patients. Higher levels of childhood urban exposure were also associated with a smaller intergenerational educational differential. There was no evidence for differential sensitivity to childhood trauma and childhood urbanicity across the three groups.ConclusionIntergenerational difference in educational achievements is decreased in patients with psychotic disorder and to a lesser extent in siblings of patients with psychotic disorder, and across higher levels of childhood urban exposure. More research is required to better understand the dynamics between early social and cognitive alterations in those at risk in relation to progress through the educational system and to understand the interaction between urban environment and educational outcomes.

The burden of clinically significant symptoms of common and severe mental disorders among adults in Vietnam: a population-based cross-sectional survey

“…In addition, there was a strong link between people who were up to completion of primary school and psychotic symptoms. Substantial evidence of the association between school performance and psychotic disorders was established [47, 48]. Early cognitive alteration was believed to hinder the education achievement.…”

Measurement invariance of the Spanish Launay–Slade Hallucinations Scale‐Extended version between putatively healthy controls and people diagnosed with a mental disorder

“…However, and as expected, the HC had a higher educational level compared with people with mental disorders. Indeed, people with mental disorders, particularly with psychotic features, often do not complete the educational path, especially when they have an early onset, in childhood or adolescence (Frissen et al, ; Mikkonen, Moustgaard, Remes, & Martikainen, ).…”

Evidence for interaction between genetic liability and childhood trauma in the development of psychotic symptoms

“…Frissen and colleagues [63] and Van Nierop and colleagues [43], therefore, used a cutoff at 80% to define CT based on the CTQ-SF. Other studies, used the tertiles cutoff to define groups [64]. In a general population sample, this might be invalid as the relatively low incidence of CT will result in subjects with low trauma ending up in the highest risk category.…”