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Help-Seeking in People with Exceptional Experiences: Results from a General Population Sample

Background: Exceptional experiences (EE) are experiences that deviate from ordinary experiences, for example precognition, supernatural appearances, or déjà vues. In spite of the high frequency of EE in the general population, little is known about their effect on mental health and about the way peo...

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Autores principales: Landolt, Karin, Wittwer, Amrei, Wyss, Thomas, Unterassner, Lui, Fach, Wolfgang, Krummenacher, Peter, Brugger, Peter, Haker, Helene, Kawohl, Wolfram, Schubiger, Pius August, Folkers, Gerd, Rössler, Wulf
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4033100/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24904915
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2014.00051
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author Landolt, Karin
Wittwer, Amrei
Wyss, Thomas
Unterassner, Lui
Fach, Wolfgang
Krummenacher, Peter
Brugger, Peter
Haker, Helene
Kawohl, Wolfram
Schubiger, Pius August
Folkers, Gerd
Rössler, Wulf
author_facet Landolt, Karin
Wittwer, Amrei
Wyss, Thomas
Unterassner, Lui
Fach, Wolfgang
Krummenacher, Peter
Brugger, Peter
Haker, Helene
Kawohl, Wolfram
Schubiger, Pius August
Folkers, Gerd
Rössler, Wulf
author_sort Landolt, Karin
collection PubMed
description Background: Exceptional experiences (EE) are experiences that deviate from ordinary experiences, for example precognition, supernatural appearances, or déjà vues. In spite of the high frequency of EE in the general population, little is known about their effect on mental health and about the way people cope with EE. This study aimed to assess the quality and quantity of EE in persons from the Swiss general population, to identify the predictors of their help-seeking, and to determine how many of them approach the mental health system. Methods: An on-line survey was used to evaluate a quota sample of 1580 persons representing the Swiss general population with respect to gender, age, and level of education. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to integrate help-seeking, self-reported mental disorder, and other variables in a statistical model designed to identify predictors of help-seeking in persons with EE. Results: Almost all participants (91%) experienced at least one EE. Generally, help-seeking was more frequent when the EE were of negative valence. Help-seeking because of EE was less frequent in persons without a self-reported mental disorder (8.6%) than in persons with a disorder (35.1%) (OR = 5.7). Even when frequency and attributes of EE were controlled for, people without a disorder sought four times less often help because of EE than expected. Persons with a self-reported diagnosis of mental disorder preferred seeing a mental health professional. Multinomial regression revealed a preference for healers in women with less education, who described themselves as believing and also having had more impressive EE. Conclusion: Persons with EE who do not indicate a mental disorder less often sought help because of EE than persons who indicated a mental disorder. We attribute this imbalance to a high inhibition threshold to seek professional help. Moreover, especially less educated women did not approach the mental health care system as often as other persons with EE, but preferred seeing a healer.
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spelling pubmed-40331002014-06-05 Help-Seeking in People with Exceptional Experiences: Results from a General Population Sample Landolt, Karin Wittwer, Amrei Wyss, Thomas Unterassner, Lui Fach, Wolfgang Krummenacher, Peter Brugger, Peter Haker, Helene Kawohl, Wolfram Schubiger, Pius August Folkers, Gerd Rössler, Wulf Front Public Health Public Health Background: Exceptional experiences (EE) are experiences that deviate from ordinary experiences, for example precognition, supernatural appearances, or déjà vues. In spite of the high frequency of EE in the general population, little is known about their effect on mental health and about the way people cope with EE. This study aimed to assess the quality and quantity of EE in persons from the Swiss general population, to identify the predictors of their help-seeking, and to determine how many of them approach the mental health system. Methods: An on-line survey was used to evaluate a quota sample of 1580 persons representing the Swiss general population with respect to gender, age, and level of education. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to integrate help-seeking, self-reported mental disorder, and other variables in a statistical model designed to identify predictors of help-seeking in persons with EE. Results: Almost all participants (91%) experienced at least one EE. Generally, help-seeking was more frequent when the EE were of negative valence. Help-seeking because of EE was less frequent in persons without a self-reported mental disorder (8.6%) than in persons with a disorder (35.1%) (OR = 5.7). Even when frequency and attributes of EE were controlled for, people without a disorder sought four times less often help because of EE than expected. Persons with a self-reported diagnosis of mental disorder preferred seeing a mental health professional. Multinomial regression revealed a preference for healers in women with less education, who described themselves as believing and also having had more impressive EE. Conclusion: Persons with EE who do not indicate a mental disorder less often sought help because of EE than persons who indicated a mental disorder. We attribute this imbalance to a high inhibition threshold to seek professional help. Moreover, especially less educated women did not approach the mental health care system as often as other persons with EE, but preferred seeing a healer. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-05-21 /pmc/articles/PMC4033100/ /pubmed/24904915 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2014.00051 Text en Copyright © 2014 Landolt, Wittwer, Wyss, Unterassner, Fach, Krummenacher, Brugger, Haker, Kawohl, Schubiger, Folkers and Rössler. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 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.
spellingShingle Public Health
Landolt, Karin
Wittwer, Amrei
Wyss, Thomas
Unterassner, Lui
Fach, Wolfgang
Krummenacher, Peter
Brugger, Peter
Haker, Helene
Kawohl, Wolfram
Schubiger, Pius August
Folkers, Gerd
Rössler, Wulf
Help-Seeking in People with Exceptional Experiences: Results from a General Population Sample
title Help-Seeking in People with Exceptional Experiences: Results from a General Population Sample
title_full Help-Seeking in People with Exceptional Experiences: Results from a General Population Sample
title_fullStr Help-Seeking in People with Exceptional Experiences: Results from a General Population Sample
title_full_unstemmed Help-Seeking in People with Exceptional Experiences: Results from a General Population Sample
title_short Help-Seeking in People with Exceptional Experiences: Results from a General Population Sample
title_sort help-seeking in people with exceptional experiences: results from a general population sample
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4033100/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24904915
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2014.00051
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