TY - JOUR
T1 - Occurrence and phenomenology of hallucinations in the general population
T2 - A large online survey
AU - Linszen, Mascha M.J.
AU - de Boer, Janna N.
AU - Schutte, Maya J.L.
AU - Begemann, Marieke J.H.
AU - de Vries, Jacqueline
AU - Koops, Sanne
AU - Blom, Renske E.
AU - Bohlken, Marc M.
AU - Heringa, Sophie M.
AU - Blom, Jan Dirk
AU - Sommer, Iris E.C.
N1 - Funding Information:
IECS received a TOP grant from The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMW, project: 91213009). The authors wish to thank Het Weekend van de Wetenschap, in particular, Marcia van Woensel and Harold Lamme, for the fruitful collaboration and for providing us with the opportunity to successfully set up and promote this survey on a national scale. Many thanks to the ‘Zie Ik Spoken’ study team (Renate Bock, Bodyl Brand, Dorothee van Breevoort, Daniël Brinckmann, Meenakshi Dauwan, Edwin van Dellen, Dédé Handgraaf, Nienke Jansen, Maayke Klaver, Caitlyn Kruiper, Rosa Lotgering, Igor Lusin, Bibi Navas Garcia, Kim Maijer, Lyliana Nasib, Folkert van Oorschot, Ruth Seidell, Margot Slot, Ineke van der Spek, Willemijn van der Veen, Jord Vink, Lucy Visser and Joppe Wouts) for their efforts in preparing the database, promotion of the survey and data acquisition.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Although epidemiological studies report that hallucinations occur in 6–15% of the general population, little is known about their phenomenology. To overcome this paucity, this study investigates the phenomenological characteristics of hallucinations in the general population, by using a nationally promoted online survey to assess hallucination phenomenology in four sensory modalities, through a self-report version of the Questionnaire for Psychotic Experiences (QPE), in 10,448 participants (aged 14–88 years). The phenomenology of hallucinations was assessed if hallucinations reportedly occurred in the past month. In the past month, auditory hallucinations were reported most frequently (29.5%), followed by visual (21.5%), tactile (19.9%), and olfactory hallucinations (17.3%); hallucinations in two or more modalities were reported by 47.6%. Substantial numbers of participants rated their hallucinations as severe, due to negative content (16.0–31.6%), previous bothersome experiences (14.8–20.2%), ensuing distress (10.5–16.8%), and/or ensuing disfunctioning (12.7–17.3%). Decreased insight was found in 10.2–11.4%. Hypnagogia was reported by 9.0–10.6%, and bereavement hallucinations by 2.8%. Despite a low prevalence of delusions (7.0%), these phenomena were significantly associated with recent hallucinations, observed in up to 13.4% of the participants with hallucinations during the past week (p < 0.001). Our results indicate a wide variety of the phenomenology of hallucinations in the general population and support the existence of a phenomenological continuum.
AB - Although epidemiological studies report that hallucinations occur in 6–15% of the general population, little is known about their phenomenology. To overcome this paucity, this study investigates the phenomenological characteristics of hallucinations in the general population, by using a nationally promoted online survey to assess hallucination phenomenology in four sensory modalities, through a self-report version of the Questionnaire for Psychotic Experiences (QPE), in 10,448 participants (aged 14–88 years). The phenomenology of hallucinations was assessed if hallucinations reportedly occurred in the past month. In the past month, auditory hallucinations were reported most frequently (29.5%), followed by visual (21.5%), tactile (19.9%), and olfactory hallucinations (17.3%); hallucinations in two or more modalities were reported by 47.6%. Substantial numbers of participants rated their hallucinations as severe, due to negative content (16.0–31.6%), previous bothersome experiences (14.8–20.2%), ensuing distress (10.5–16.8%), and/or ensuing disfunctioning (12.7–17.3%). Decreased insight was found in 10.2–11.4%. Hypnagogia was reported by 9.0–10.6%, and bereavement hallucinations by 2.8%. Despite a low prevalence of delusions (7.0%), these phenomena were significantly associated with recent hallucinations, observed in up to 13.4% of the participants with hallucinations during the past week (p < 0.001). Our results indicate a wide variety of the phenomenology of hallucinations in the general population and support the existence of a phenomenological continuum.
U2 - 10.1038/s41537-022-00229-9
DO - 10.1038/s41537-022-00229-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85128776153
SN - 2334-265X
VL - 8
JO - Schizophrenia
JF - Schizophrenia
M1 - 41
ER -