Drug and Alcohol Dependence 100 (2009) 39–46 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/drugalcdep Are psychotic experiences among detained juvenile offenders explained by trauma and substance use? Olivier Colins a,b,∗ , Robert Vermeiren b,c , Coby Vreugdenhil d , Gilberte Schuyten e , Eric Broekaert a , Anne Krabbendam b,c a Department of Special Education, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University. Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium b Leiden University Medical Center/Curium. Endegeesterstraatweg 27, 2342 AK Oegstgeest, The Netherlands c VU University Medical Center. Postbus 303; 1115 ZG Duivendrecht, The Netherlands d MoleMann Mental Health Clinics. Kweekgrasstraat 46, 1313 BT Almere, The Netherlands e Department of Data Analysis, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University. Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium article info Article history: Received 11 February 2008 Received in revised form 28 August 2008 Accepted 29 August 2008 Available online 17 November 2008 Keywords: Paranoia Childhood abuse Childhood neglect Marihuana Amphetamines Cocaine abstract Objective: High rates of psychotic experiences among detained adolescents have been reported. However, the significance of psychotic experiences in detained juveniles is still poorly understood. The current study, therefore, (1) examines whether psychotic experiences could be explained by substance use and/or traumatic experiences, and (2) investigates this objective without taking into account the frequently occurring paranoia-related symptoms that may not be psychosis-related in detained minors. Method: Data were derived from 231 detained adolescents. By means of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children, psychotic experiences, life-threatening events and substance use were assessed while the Child Traumatic Questionnaire was used for a history of abuse and neglect. Results: In univariate logistic regression analyses, having psychotic experiences was positively associ- ated with substance-related (e.g. past year intense marihuana use) and trauma-related (e.g. emotional abuse) variables. However, without taken paranoia-related experiences into account, different associa- tions between psychotic experiences and substance-related and/or trauma-related variables were found. After building best fitting models, logistic regression analyses demonstrated a preponderance of trauma- related over substance-related variables in predicting the number of psychotic experiences (i.e. 0, 1–2, >2). Conclusion: These findings suggest that psychotic experiences in detained adolescents may be explained by trauma and substance use. In addition, paranoia-related experiences seemed to be particularly associated with emotional abuse. © 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In contrast to the numerous reports on psychotic disorders in adult offenders, sound investigations of psychotic disorders in juvenile delinquents are rare. The few existing studies on psy- chotic disorders in adolescent detainees have provided prevalence rates ranging from 1% to 4% (Colins et al., in press; Gosden et al., 2003; Hollander and Turner, 1985; McManus et al., 1984; Richards, 1996; Teplin et al., 2002). When including psychotic experiences as described by van Os et al. (Johns and van Os, 2001; van Os et al., 2000), more studies in detained youths can be found, with rates from 25% up to 75% (Atkins et al., 1999; Teplin et al., 2002; Ulzen and Hamilton, 1998; Vreugdenhil et al., 2004). Most clinicians working with juvenile offenders will not agree that these enumerated psy- ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +31 71 515 96 15; fax: +31 71 517 14 41. E-mail address: O.Colins.CUR@curium.nl (O. Colins). chotic experiences indicate a clinical psychotic disorder. At present, it is still unclear whether such experiences are really psychotic, or phenomena that occur in the range of other disorders (Vermeiren et al., 2006) In addition, a substantial proportion of the general pop- ulation have psychotic experiences without having any psychiatric diagnosis, or without being in need for care (Escher et al., 2002; Hanssen et al., 2005; Nishida et al., 2008), suggesting that such experiences do not need to be markers of poor mental health. As research in community and clinical samples shows a rela- tion between childhood abuse and psychotic experiences (Janssen et al., 2004; Read et al., 2005), the high levels of childhood abuse in detained adolescents (Haapasalo and Hamalainen, 1996; Ulzen and Hamilton, 1998; Yoshinaga et al., 2004) may well account for the enumerated psychotic experiences. However, while most research has focused on the impact of physical and sexual abuse (Bernstein et al., 2003), there is an increasing body of evidence that different types of traumatic experiences have different psy- chopathological outcomes. Therefore, when studying the relation 0376-8716/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2008.08.013