Risk of schizophrenia and other psychoses three times higher in refugees

A study of 1.3 million people in Sweden found that the risk of being diagnosed with schizophrenia or other psychoses was three times higher in refugees than in the Swedish-born population. The research team, from the Karolinska Institutet and UCL, found that more than one in a thousand refugees were diagnosed with schizophrenia or other psychoses every year. For every 10,000 people, there would be approximately 4 new diagnoses among Swedish-born people per year, 8 among non-refugee migrants and 12 among refugees. The study, published in the BMJ, supports the theory that schizophrenia and other psychoses are influenced by life experiences. In the study, refugees were also 66% more likely to be diagnosed with such disorders than other migrants from the same regions. This suggests that the specific experiences of refugees, including traumatic events such as persecution, conflict or natural disasters, may contribute to risk of developing these disorders. "The dramatically increased risk among refugees shows that life events are a significant risk factor for schizophrenia and other psychoses," explains leads author Dr Anna-Clara Hollander from the Karolinska Institutet.