A team of researchers has found that experiencing repeated trauma throughout infancy and adolescence increases the risk of suffering psychosis during adulthood by at least sevenfold.
The University of Granada (UGR) study also found that smoking cannabis five times a week or more during infancy or adolescence multiplies said risk by 6.
This possibility rises a 30 percent for each point gained in a personality trait called neuroticism or emotional instability (emotional instability and insecurity, high level of anxiety, constant state of worry and stress, etc.).
These three associations are independent of each other and of genre, age, or the patient's extroversion (another personality trait included in the so called Eysenck Personality Test, which the researchers used in their research).
This work has the value of being the first one in being carried out in a clinical sample of psychotic and non-psychotic siblings and it brings to light the need of the doctors to inquire into these precedents when evaluating their patients, co-authors Manuel Gurpegui and Jorge Cervilla explained.
The study is published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research magazine.
