Magical thinking in individuals with high polygenic risk for schizophrenia but no non-affective psychoses—a general population study
Molecular Psychiatry May 3, 2022 Aino Saarinen, Leo‐Pekka Lyytikäinen, Jarmo Hietala et al. 22 citations
A high polygenic risk score for schizophrenia predicts elevated magical thinking in adults who never develop a non-affective psychotic disorder. Among 1,292 participants from the Young Finns Study, those with high genetic risk showed higher scores on the Spiritual Acceptance Scale (beliefs in telepathy, miracles, mystical events, or sixth sense) across ages 20–50. While magical thinking typically decreased steadily from age 20 to 50 in low-risk individuals, high-risk individuals showed a plateau in middle age, leaving their magical thinking higher than expected. These patterns held after controlling for sex, childhood family environment, and adulthood socioeconomic factors. The finding suggests that high genetic psychosis risk can manifest as milder deviant thinking when full psychosis does not develop.