* Subclinical psychosis syndromes in the general population: results from a large-scale epidemiological survey among residents of the canton of Zurich, Switzerland.
- Aims. Prevalence and covariates of subclinical psychosis have gained increased interest in the context of early identification and treatment of persons at risk for psychosis. Methods. We analysed 9829 adults representative of the general population within the canton of Zurich, Switzerland. Two psychosis syndromes, derived from the SCL-90-R, were applied: 'schizotypal signs' and 'schizophrenia nuclear symptoms'. Results. Only a few subjects (13.2%) reported no schizotypal signs. While 33.2% of subjects indicated mild signs, only a small proportion (3.7%) reported severe signs. A very common outcome was no 'schizophrenia nuclear symptoms' (70.6%). Although 13.5% of the participants reported mild symptoms, severe nuclear symptoms were very rare (0.5%). Because these two syndromes were only moderately correlated (r = 0.43), we were able to establish sufficiently distinct symptom clusters. Schizotypal signs were more closely connected to distress than was schizophrenia nuclear symptoms, even though their distribution types were similar. Both syndromes were associated with several covariates, such as alcohol and tobacco use, being unmarried, low education level, psychopathological distress and low subjective well-being. Conclusions. Subclinical psychosis symptoms are quite frequent in the general population but, for the most part, are not very pronounced. In particular, our data support the notion of a continuous Wald distribution of psychotic symptoms in the general population. Our findings have enabled us to confirm the usefulness of these syndromes as previously assessed in other independent community samples. Both can appropriately be associated with well-known risk factors of schizophrenia.
Overview of noun factor
The noun factor has 7 senses (first 4 from tagged texts)
1. (31) factor -- (anything that contributes causally to a result; "a number of factors determined
the outcome")
2. (8) component, constituent, element, factor, ingredient -- (an abstract part of something;
"jealousy was a component of his character"; "two constituents of a musical composition are melody
and harmony"; "the grammatical elements of a sentence"; "a key factor in her success"; "humor: an
effective ingredient of a speech")
3. (4) divisor, factor -- (one of two or more integers that can be exactly divided into another
integer; "what are the 4 factors of 6?")
4. (1) agent, factor, broker -- (a businessman who buys or sells for another in exchange for a
commission)
5. factor -- (any of the numbers (or symbols) that form a product when multiplied together)
6. factor -- (an independent variable in statistics)
7. gene, cistron, factor -- ((genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide
chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the
exons; it is considered a unit of heredity; "genes were formerly called factors")
Overview of verb factor
The verb factor has 3 senses (first 1 from tagged texts)
1. (2) factor, factor in, factor out -- (resolve into factors; "a quantum computer can factor the
number 15")
2. factor -- (be a contributing factor; "make things factor into a company's profitability")
3. factor, factor in, factor out -- (consider as relevant when making a decision; "You must factor
in the recent developments")
--- WordNet end ---