A comparison of visual hallucinations across disorders

Dudley, R.; Aynsworth, C.; Mosimann, U.; Taylor, J-P.; Smailes, D.; Collerton, D.; McCarthy-Jones, S.; Urwyler, Prabitha (2019). A comparison of visual hallucinations across disorders. Psychiatry research, 272, pp. 86-92. Elsevier 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.12.052

Preview	Text 1-s2.0-S0165178118318778-main.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works (CC-BY-NC-ND). Download (779kB) | Preview
	Text 1-s2.0-S0165178118318778-main.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (282kB)

Research into hallucinations typically regards them as single sensory or unimodal experiences leading to a comparative neglect of co-occurring multi-sensory hallucinations (MSH). People with psychosis who have visual hallucinations (VH) report high rates of hallucinations in other senses (auditory, olfactory, tactile). However, it is not known if this is similar to other groups who report VH. Consequently, this study explored MSH in four different patient groups who all had current VH. Archival data from standardised assessments of visual hallucinations in people with psychosis (n=22), eye disease (ED) (n=82), Lewy body Dementia (LBD) (n=41), and Parkinson's disease (PD) (n=41) determined the presence of MSH. People with psychosis and visual hallucinations reported significantly higher rates of MSH (auditory, 73%; tactile, 82%; olfactory/gustatory hallucinations, 27%) than the LBD group (auditory, 21%; tactile, 28%; olfactory/gustatory, 6%), ED (auditory, 1%; tactile, 11%; olfactory/gustatory, 0%) and PD patients (auditory, 3%; tactile, 8%; olfactory/gustatory, 3%). Regardless of diagnostic grouping, participants with MSH reported greater conviction that the VH were real, and reported greater distress. People with psychosis with VH report high rates of MSH unlike groups of older adults with VH. These between group differences in MSH prevalence have implications for clinical practice and theory.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

525 since deposited on 23 Jan 2019
122 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item