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.
Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy
January 1, 2024
Lindsay Smith, Susan L. Rossell, Neil Thomas et al.
4 citations
Auditory verbal hallucinations (voice-hearing) cause similar levels of distress in people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, but those with bipolar disorder are more likely to attribute the voices to internal causes. In bipolar disorder, distress is linked to beliefs that the voices are malevolent, omnipotent, and to be resisted, yet only resistance, along with manic and depressive symptoms, independently predicts distress. The findings suggest that reducing resistance to voices and addressing mood symptoms could be therapeutic targets for voice-hearing in bipolar disorder.
The Journal of nervous and mental disease
April 1, 2024
Wei Lin Toh, Neil Thomas, Susan Lee Rossell
1 citation
Visual hallucinations in people with psychosis typically occur daily, last a few minutes, appear directly in the line of sight, and most often involve seeing persons or animals. These hallucinations are difficult to control and usually cause negative emotions. Among participants who also experienced voice-hearing, 46.8% reported tactile hallucinations and 39.0% reported olfactory hallucinations. Those with affective psychosis were more aware of their hallucinations and had less functional impairment than those with nonaffective psychosis. The study describes common themes across these hallucination types and calls for more research on less-studied hallucination modalities.
Journal of personality disorders
August 1, 2022
Zalie Merrett, David J Castle, Neil Thomas et al.
Hallucinations and delusions are common in borderline personality disorder (BPD) and often resemble those in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. In a study of 89 adults, 81% of those with BPD reported visual and tactile hallucinations, 75% reported olfactory hallucinations, and 94% experienced delusions. Comparing BPD with and without voices showed no significant differences in nonpsychotic psychopathology. Hallucinations in BPD were similar to those in schizophrenia, though the BPD group had higher rates of paranoia and delusions of guilt. Multisensory hallucinations and delusions in BPD warrant clinical attention.