How often do psychoses occur?

HANNEKE WIGMAN: Psychosis is quite rare. Around 3% of the people have an episode of psychosis during his or her life. And psychosis can occur together with many other conditions, for example, schizophrenia, trauma, addiction, or severe depression. A first episode of psychosis usually happens between the age of 18 and 25. We think that this has to do with big changes that are happening in this period, for example, in the brains of young people. But also in other areas, for example, school, moving out, getting a job, meeting new people, and all other different kind of things. Some symptoms that are part of depression can also occur more mildly among people.

In fact, such psychotic experiences occur a lot more than we always thought. These people are not psychotic, but have mild psychotic experiences. It is a bit comparable with depression. Some people just feel a bit blue, and other people have real depression. Such mild psychotic experiences can be anything. Have you ever had the feeling that you were walking on the street and thought that someone was calling your name? Or when you were out during twilight and weren’t really sure whether you saw someone walking in the shadows or not? Sometimes such experiences are just a wrong interpretation of the world around you. Perhaps someone was just calling a name that sounded a bit like yours. But sometimes, such experiences just happen.

Often they might not be scary at all. You might not even think twice about it. But sometimes they can be a bit scary, or a bit annoying. And in this case, such experiences may linger a little bit longer. Such experiences occur most often in children between 9 and 12 years old. During these years, around 70% of children has a mild psychotic experience. When getting older, these experiences occur less often. For example, in adolescence between 13 and 18 years old, the percentage of adolescents having such experiences is around 7 and 1/2% percent. And in adults, the percentage of people who have a mild psychotic experience is around 5%.

Girls and women are more likely to have such experiences than boys and men. Usually, mild psychotic experiences do not linger, and they tend to pass. But sometimes they can persist or reoccur, and this can be uncomfortable or distressing. Luckily, this does not happen so often.