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. 2025 Jan;19(1):e13597.
doi: 10.1111/eip.13597. Epub 2024 Aug 2.

Do help-seeking adolescents report more psychotic-like experiences than young adults on the 16-item version of the prodromal questionnaire (PQ-16)?

Yvonne de Jong  1   2 , Albert E Boon  1   3 , Cornelis L Mulder  1   2 , Mark van der Gaag  4
Affiliations

Do help-seeking adolescents report more psychotic-like experiences than young adults on the 16-item version of the prodromal questionnaire (PQ-16)?

Yvonne de Jong et al. Early Interv Psychiatry. 2025 Jan.

Abstract

Aim: To compare psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) in adolescents and young adults referred to the Mental Health Services (MHSs).

Methods: Participants scored the 16-item Prodromal Questionnaire (PQ-16) as part of the intake procedure. Data on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) classification and demographic data were collected.

Results: The PQ-16 was completed by 13 783 respondents (mean age 24.63 years, SD = 6.09; 62.6% female). Overall, the scores on the PQ-16 were not higher for adolescents (11-17 years; m = 4.84, SD = 3.62) than for young adults (18-35 years; m = 5.47, SD = 3.85). On PQ-16 item level, adolescents reported seeing and hearing things more than adults did. Across all age groups, males scored lower on the PQ-16 than females. Specifically, adolescent males scored lower than other participants. For adolescents and young adults alike, PQ-16 scores were higher for participants with borderline personality disorder, PTSD, and mood disorder than for those with other DSM classifications.

Conclusions: Although help-seeking adolescents did not score higher on the PQ-16 than help-seeking young adults, more of them reported perceptual anomalies. Irrespective of age, participants with borderline personality disorder, PTSD and mood disorder scored higher on the PQ-16 than those with other DSM classifications.

Keywords: adolescents; early detection; prodromal questionnaire; psychotic disorder; psychotic‐like experiences; young adult.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flowchart participants.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Mean PQ‐16 total score per age, differentiated for gender, with a confidence interval (CI) of 95%.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Mean total PQ‐16 score for mood disorder, PTSD and BPD, differentiated for adolescents and adults.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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