Do women express and experience psychosis differently from men? epidemiological evidence from the Australian National Study of Low Pevalence (Pychotic) Disorders

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine how women differ from men in their expression and experience of psychosis. METHOD: Using an epidemiological sampling frame, 1090 cases of psychosis (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, affective psychoses, and other psychoses) were randomly selected from a catchment of 1.1 million people as part of the Australian Study of Low Prevalence (Psychotic) Disorders. Women and men were compared with respect to their premorbid functioning, onset and course of illness, symptomatology, levels of disability and service utilization. RESULTS: Results within diagnostic groupings confirm differences in how men and women experience and express their illness. Within each diagnostic ..