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Theoretically, the occurrence of hallucinations (hallucinations) could be treated as a reason to visit a psychiatrist, however, contrary to appearances, these disorders are sometimes associated not only with mental disorders. Hallucinations can be caused by both brain tumor and liver failure. Diagnosing their cause is important because it is its treatment that allows the occurrence of abnormal sensations, which are hallucinations, to subside.

Hallucinations(also called hallucinations) is a symptom that belongs to a cognitive impairment. Hallucinations are sensory experiences that arise without the action of some causative stimulus (e.g. seeing an image of an object that is not really there).

The patient is convinced that the sensations are genuine - it is impossible to persuade him that the things he sees do not really exist. Improper sensations regarding the sense organs can occur in completely he althy people (e.g. before falling asleep and when waking up from sleep), but they are also associated with many different disease states.

Hallucinations: symptoms and types

Hallucinations are classified according to the sense organs they are related to. For this reason, the following are distinguished:

  • visual hallucinations(including seeing simple sensations, such as flashes, but also complex shapes - silhouettes of people, animals or non-existent objects),
  • auditory hallucinations(hearing all kinds of pops, clicks or voices or even music),
  • taste hallucinations(feeling - without any stimulus - some taste, usually unpleasant),
  • somatic hallucinations(consisting in the fact that the patient feels tactile stimuli, e.g. he has the impression that some insects are moving over him),
  • olfactory hallucinations(the patient feels a smell that does not exist for others, as in the case of taste hallucinations, it is usually unpleasant for the patient, e.g. it may be a burning smell).

Hallucinations are divided not only in terms of content, but also in terms of the range of experiences experienced by the patient. Therefore, it stands out:

  • simple hallucinations , relating to one specific sensory organ,
  • compound hallucinationsin whichabnormal sensations of two or more senses appear (e.g. visual hallucinations are accompanied by auditory hallucinations).

The above-mentioned types of hallucinations are treated as symptoms suggesting the existence of some pathology, however, there is a form of hallucinations that may occur as a physiological phenomenon. In this case, we are talking abouthypnopompic hallucinationsandhypnagogic hallucinations . The former appear when waking up from sleep, while the latter may accompany falling asleep. These problems usually take the form of visual and auditory hallucinations.

Hallucinations: causes

Hallucinations may appear in the course of such diseases as:

  • schizophrenia,
  • psychotic disorders,
  • Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia,
  • Parkinson's disease,
  • neoplastic diseases of the central nervous system (this applies to both primary brain tumors and metastases to this area of ​​the body),
  • epileptic seizures,
  • migraine episodes,
  • delirium tremens,
  • Charles Bonnet syndrome,
  • use of psychoactive substances - alcohol, drugs or legal highs (hallucinations can appear both during the use and as a result of their sudden withdrawal),
  • high fever,
  • significant renal or hepatic dysfunction,
  • meningitis,
  • low blood glucose (hypoglycemia),
  • electrolyte disturbances (e.g. hyponatremia, i.e. too low sodium concentration in the blood),
  • sensory deprivation.

Hallucinations: treatment

The hallucinations themselves are not treated - the therapy should, however, cover the disease or disorder that induced their appearance. However, before that happens, the patient must be properly diagnosed. It may include, among others performing imaging tests (e.g. computed tomography) or EEG tests.

After diagnosis, causal treatment of hallucinations can be initiated. The treatment regimen depends in this case on the problem of a given patient: in patients with brain cancer, the therapy will focus on eliminating the proliferative process, while in people suffering from dementia, pharmacotherapy will be implemented. If it turns out that the hallucinations are related to schizophrenia, then the patient will be prescribed antipsychotic drugs.

Hallucinations must certainly not be underestimated - when analyzing the causes of the problem, it is quite easy to notice that evenlife-threatening conditions.

About the authorBow. Tomasz NęckiA graduate of medicine at the Medical University of Poznań. An admirer of the Polish sea (most willingly strolling along its shores with headphones in his ears), cats and books. In working with patients, he focuses on always listening to them and spending as much time as they need.

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Psychiatry