Childhood Adversity and Risk of Psychosis in Adulthood: A Case-Control Study at Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Calabar

The relationship between childhood adversity and adult psychosis risk is well established in Western literature, but Nigerian-based case-control evidence is limited. This study examines the association between specific childhood adversities and the risk of psychosis in adulthood among patients at Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Calabar, Cross River State, South South Nigeria. A case-control design will recruit 100 patients with first-episode psychosis (cases) and 100 community controls matched on age, gender, and local government area. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) will retrospectively assess physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect. Structured clinical interviews will document psychosis diagnoses, symptom severity (PANSS), and cannabis use history. Conditional logistic regression will calculate odds ratios for each adversity type while controlling for confounders. Emerging African evidence suggests that childhood sexual abuse and emotional neglect independently elevate psychosis risk, though cultural underreporting may attenuate estimates. This study will generate locally relevant evidence with implications for childhood trauma prevention programs and early psychosis intervention in Cross River State. Keywords: childhood adversity, psychosis, case-control, Calabar, trauma