ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1570957
This article is part of the Research TopicThrough the Lens of Fear: Unsafe Neighborhood and Mental Health Difficulties Among AdultsView all 4 articles
Associations between local rates of violence and experiences of psychosis in Trinidad
Provisionally accepted
- 1Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
- 2The University of the West Indies St. Augustine, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
- 3King's College London, London, England, United Kingdom
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Individual-level exposure to violence is known to influence various aspects of the experience of psychosis. This study aimed to assess the impact of local violence rates on the symptom profiles and outcomes of people with psychosis, their exposure to trauma and other potential risk and protective factors, and interactions with the police and mental health services, in a Caribbean country with high rates of violent crime.Data from 212 people with psychosis and matched population control participants were collected through a population-based programme of research on psychosis in Trinidad (INTREPID II) and linked geographically with crime statistics, disaggregated to the areas surrounding each police station.There was no evidence of a substantive association between local rates of violent crime and symptoms of psychosis or the course of illness on most measures, although people in lower crime areas appeared to be more likely to experience hallucinations than those living in high-violence areas (β-0.30, 95% CI -0.50 --0.11, p<0.01). There was some evidence that people living in highviolence areas were more likely to be restrained within the mental health system than those from lower-violence areas (OR 2.00, 95% CI 0.98-4.09, p=0.06), despite being no more likely to act in violent or disruptive ways.The lack of association between violent crime and various aspects of psychosis may indicate that the psychological effect of violent crime is not confined to single localities, and may be influenced by
Keywords: psychosis, Place, Violence, Trinidad, Caribbean
Received: 04 Feb 2025; Accepted: 21 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Roberts, Lee Pow, Donald, Hutchinson and Morgan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tessa Roberts, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
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