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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology

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01-12-2015 | Original Paper

Economic inequality is related to cross-national prevalence of psychotic symptoms

Authors: Sheri L. Johnson, Erik Wibbels, Richard Wilkinson

Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 12/2015

Abstract

Purpose

A burgeoning literature documents robust links of income inequality with the prevalence of psychological disorders. The aim of this paper is to extend this literature by examining the effects of cross-national income inequality on prevalence of psychotic symptoms.

Method

Analyses used archival data of representative samples from 50 countries (N = 249,217). Four types of psychotic symptoms were assessed using the well-validated CIDI interview. We examined the effects of Standardized World Income Inequality Database (SWIID) measures of the concentration of income in the top percentile of people and the Gini coefficient of income inequality.

Results

Income inequality was significantly correlated with the national prevalence of hallucinations, delusions of thought control, and delusional mood, and effects withstood control over national indices of per capita income and regime type. Findings were also robust to nonparametric bootstrapping.

Conclusions

Although the cross-sectional design limits ability to claim causality, income inequality appears important for understanding psychotic symptoms.

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Title: Economic inequality is related to cross-national prevalence of psychotic symptoms
Authors: Sheri L. Johnson
Erik Wibbels
Richard Wilkinson
Publication date: 01-12-2015
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology / Issue 12/2015
Print ISSN: 0933-7954
Electronic ISSN: 1433-9285
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-015-1112-4

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Economic inequality is related to cross-national prevalence of psychotic symptoms

Abstract

Purpose

Method

Results

Conclusions

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Purpose

Method

Results

Conclusions

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