Since the turn of the century, the study of psychotic experiences in the general population has emerged as a major
paradigm in mental health research. We now know that
psychotic experiences are a relatively prevalent phenomenon, particularly in children and adolescents (1). They do not
occur randomly and are clustered with other psychopathology (2β4), poor functioning (5, 6), and suicidal thoughts
and behaviors (4, 7). A systematic review (3) has shown that
psychotic experiences in childhood and adolescence are
associated with a fourfold increased risk of a later psychotic
disorder but that evidence for longitudinal associations with
nonpsychotic disorders is sparse. Recent work has shown
that psychotic experiences by themselves appear to have low
predictive value and low sensitivity for predicting a later
psychotic disorder (8) and that a more nuanced approach
is needed to harness the predictive power of psychotic
experience