ArticleBMC psychiatry2019
Khat use and psychotic symptoms in a rural Khat growing population in Kenya: a household survey.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring the association between khat use and psychiatric symptoms: a systematic review.BMJ open · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Evaluation of a Mass Media Educational Campaign to Increase Secondary School Students' Awareness of Health Risks of Khat Chewing: A Quasi-Experimental Pre-Post Study in Aden, Yemen.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2026Article
- Article
- Review
- Sociodemographic influences on substance use in psychosis in an African cohort.Schizophrenia research · 2025Article
- Electromembrane extraction (EME)-LC-MS/MS of khat: improving separation and determination of bioactive ingredients in traditional plant and vitreous humor.Forensic toxicology · 2025Article
- Exploring anxiety and sleep disorders among Edna Adan university students in Somaliland: associated stressors and insights.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Machine learning algorithms to predict khat chewing practice and its predictors among men aged 15 to 59 in Ethiopia: further analysis of the 2011 and 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Khat chewing among parents and their children: A potential transgenerational effect.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2024Article
- Examining HIV Knowledge and Sexually Risky Behaviors among Female Sex Workers in Kampala, Uganda.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Individual and community-level factors associated with khat (Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Combining a guided self-help and brief alcohol intervention to improve mental health and reduce substance use among refugee men in Uganda: a cluster-randomized feasibility trial.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2024Article
- Studying the context of psychoses to improve outcomes in Ethiopia (SCOPE): Protocol paper.PloS one · 2024Article
- Chewing Khat (International journal of general medicine · 2024Article
- Association between psychosis and substance use in Kenya. Findings from the NeuroGAP-Psychosis study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Is chewing khat associated with mental health disorders? A scoping review of the content and quality of the current evidence base.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2023Article
- Prevalence and Risk Factors of Hypertension in Hargeisa, Somaliland: A Hospital-Based Cross-Sectional Study.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Khat chewing and its associated factors among pregnant women in Chiro district, eastern Ethiopia: a community-based study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Adverse Effects of Chewing Khat (Catha edulis): A Community-based Study in Ethiopia.Oman medical journal · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundKhat is an amphetamine like psychostimulant chewed by over 10 million people globally. Khat use is thought to increase the risk of psychosis among its chewers. The evidence around this however remains inconclusive stemming from the scanty number of studies in this area and small study sample sizes. We undertook a large household survey to determine the association between psychotic symptoms and khat chewing in a rural khat growing and chewing population in Kenya.
methodsFor this cross-sectional household survey, we randomly selected 831 participants aged 10 years and above residing in the Eastern region of Kenya. We used the psychosis screening questionnaire (PSQ) to collect information on psychotic symptoms and a researcher designed sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire to collect information on its risk factors. We used descriptive analysis to describe the burden of khat chewing and other substance use as well as rates and types of psychotic symptoms. Using a univariate and multivariate analyses with 95% confidence interval, we estimated the association between khat chewing and specific psychotic symptoms.
resultsThe prevalence of current khat chewing in the region was at 36.8% (n = 306) with a male gender predominance (54.8%). At least one psychotic symptom was reported by 16.8% (n = 168) of the study population. Interestingly, psychotic symptoms in general were significantly prevalent in women (19.5%) compared to men (13.6%) (p = 0.023). Khat chewing was significantly associated with reported strange experiences (p = 0.024) and hallucinations (p = 0.0017), the two predominantly reported psychotic symptoms. In multivariate analysis controlling for age, gender, alcohol use and cigarette smoking, there was a positive association of strange experiences (OR, 2.45; 95%CI, 1.13-5.34) and hallucination (OR, 2.08; 95% C.I, 1.06-4.08) with khat chewing. Of note was the high concurrent polysubstance use among khat chewers specifically alcohol use (78.4%) and cigarette smoking (64.5%).
conclusionsPsychotic symptoms were significantly elevated in khat users in this population. Future prospective studies examining dose effect and age of first use may establish causality.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.