Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany)
September 29, 2025
Wei Lin Toh, Sophie Richards, Charles Fernyhough et al.
4 citations
Hearing voices is well studied in psychosis, but unusual perceptions in other senses and in other mental health conditions are often overlooked. This narrative review examined voices and altered perceptual experiences across psychotic, mood, and anxiety disorders. Key findings include: these experiences vary widely within individuals and across diagnoses, often involving multiple senses; existing research focuses mainly on trauma and brain processes as causes; current theories mostly address only voices; new treatments need to be broader; and there are major issues with how these experiences are defined and how they differ across cultures. The review calls for better assessment tools and more consistent research methods, and emphasizes including patients' own perspectives and cultural context.
Journal of psychiatric research
December 1, 2022
Chris R Brewin, Kirsty Phillips, John Morton et al.
2 citations
Voice-hearers typically report about four distinct voices, most perceived as male and with negative content. Child-aged voices are significantly less negative than other voices except those perceived as elderly. Variability in voice characteristics is greater between different voices within an individual than between different utterances of the same voice. These findings are inconsistent with cognitive models that attribute voices to misattributed inner speech and better support a dissociation model of voice-hearing. The results suggest that classifying voices by subtype or dimensional methods may be useful, and that clinical assessment should more systematically evaluate the multiplicity of voices.
Psychology and psychotherapy
December 7, 2025
Sepinood Noroozi, Nastaran Doroud, Eleanor Longden et al.
Hearing voices can challenge a person's sense of self and autonomy, but autonomy is continuously negotiated through reflection, adaptation, and self-regulation. Interviews with six voice hearers revealed three key themes: voices challenged self-authorship, requiring personally meaningful narratives to re-establish autonomy; autonomy and power were shared and negotiated with voices; and voices interfered with perceived competence and decision-making, limiting the ability to navigate life independently. The capacity to integrate experiences and influence change affected how self-determined participants felt. Supporting voice hearers in constructing self-oriented narratives may strengthen their sense of autonomy.
Schizophrenia bulletin
January 16, 2026
Neil Thomas, Thomas Ward, Eleanor Longden et al.
A new group of psychological interventions for hearing voices, called relational therapies, focuses on changing how a person relates to their voices. These therapies include Relating Therapy, Talking with Voices, and AVATAR Therapy. They use experiential dialogue with voices, such as role-play, direct conversation, or computer avatars, to improve the hearer-voice relationship. AVATAR Therapy has shown effectiveness in multiple randomized trials, Relating Therapy in two trials, and a trial for Talking with Voices is ongoing. Key mechanisms involve changing how the hearer relates to the voice, reducing threat, and integrating the voice experience into the person's life story. Future research should explore which therapy works for whom and how these therapies affect voice hearing itself.