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PubMed1998

Early dopaminergic drug-induced hallucinations in parkinsonian patients.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize patients who develop hallucinations early in the course of dopaminergic therapy for Parkinson's disease (PD) and contrast them with patients developing hallucinations after chronic drug treatment. METHODS: Parkinsonian patients who met diagnostic criteria for PD, experienced hallucinations, had a detailed hallucination interview at the onset time of their first hallucination, and had a 5-year clinical follow-up or an autopsy in those 5 years were identified and divided into two groups for comparison: 12 patients who developed early hallucinations within 3 months of starting levodopa therapy and 58 PD patients who developed hallucinations after 1 year of dopaminergic therapy. We contrasted the quality, content, diurnal nature, and emotional elements of the hallucinations, as well as the 5-year follow-up data on diagnosis, disease course, community home or nursing home outcome, and mortality. RESULTS: Both groups experienced a predominance of visual hallucinations, visions of people and animals, and vivid colors and definition. Features distinctive to the early onset hallucinating patients included visions that persisted in daytime as well as nighttime, frightening content with paranoia, and accompanying nonvisual hallucinations, either auditory, olfactory, tactile, or combinations thereof. At the 5-year follow-up, none of the early onset hallucinators had PD as their sole disorder. Four of the 12 had an underlying psychiatric illness that included hallucinations or psychosis preceding their parkinsonism by several years. In the other eight patients at the 5-year follow-up, their parkinsonism evolved to include additional signs that were no longer consistent with PD. The primary diagnoses were diffuse Lewy body disease and Alzheimer's disease (AD) with extrapyramidal signs. Patients with early drug-induced hallucinations had significantly greater placement to nursing homes and greater mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Early onset drug-related hallucinations are not typical of PD. Their presence should signal an investigation of two alternative diagnoses, either a comorbid psychotic illness (often unrevealed by the patient initially) or an evolving parkinsonism-plus syndrome.

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PubMed2001

Prospective study of hallucinations and delusions in Parkinson's disease.

OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of hallucinations and delusions in Parkinson's disease, to describe such symptoms phenomenologically, and possibly to determine factors associated with their development. In addition, the role of the visual system in relation to visual hallucinations was examined. METHOD: 102 consecutive patients diagnosed with strictly defined Parkinson's disease were examined for the presence of hallucinations and delusions and assessed for visual acuity, cognition, depression using the geriatric depression scale, disease severity as measured by the UPDRS, and other clinical variables. RESULTS: Of 102 consecutive patients, 29.4% (n=30) had hallucinations or delusions, four (3.9%) were determined to be psychotic due solely to delirium and were excluded from further analysis. Of the 98 remaining patients, 26.5% (n=26) had visual hallucinations. Among these, one patient also had delusions, two had auditory hallucinations, and one had gustatory hallucinations. Visual hallucinations were significantly associated with worse visual acuity, lower cognitive score, higher depression score, and worse disease severity. Hallucinations were not associated with history of psychiatric disease, dose or duration of levodopa or other antiparkinsonian medication treatment, or duration of illness. CONCLUSIONS: Visual hallucinations are common symptoms in Parkinson's disease and are most likely of multifactorial origin. Although higher doses of levodopa are known to be related clinically to hallucinations in individual patients, the results suggest that several underlying characteristics of patients with Parkinson's disease (disease severity, dementia, depression, worse visual acuity) may be more important determinants of which patients experience hallucinations. The data also provide preliminary evidence that abnormality of the visual system may be related to visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease, as has been found in other disorders with visual hallucinations.

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PubMed2001

Genetic variation analysis in parkinson disease patients with and without hallucinations: case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Visual hallucinations in Parkinson disease (PD) occur in approximately one third of patients treated long-term with dopaminergic medications. In Alzheimer disease, hallucinations and psychosis have been linked to increased representations of B2/B2 homozyogotes for the dopamine receptor gene DRD1 and 1/1 or 2/2 homozygotes for DRD3. In addition, a previous study of PD patients with and without hallucinations did not show differences in D2 and D3 polymorphisms, although careful case-control matching was not performed. Another study linked the apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) allele to hallucinations in PD. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the frequency of dopamine receptor genetic variants and APOE alleles in patients with PD with and without chronic visual hallucinations resembles the pattern previously documented in patients with Alzheimer disease. METHODS: We conducted a case-control study of 44 patients with PD and chronic hallucinations and 44 patients with PD who had never hallucinated. Cases and controls were matched for current age and medications. DNA was isolated from blood samples and assayed for DRD1, DRD2, DRD3, DRD4, and APOE polymorphisms. Receptor polymorphisms were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction. Genotypes in hallucinators and nonhallucinators were compared using Mantel-Haenszel tests stratified by pair, and allele frequencies were compared using Wilcoxon signed rank tests within pairs. RESULTS: Neither D1 receptor genotypes (P =.37) nor allele frequencies (P =.38) differed, and there was no predominance of B2/B2 homozygotes in the hallucinators. For D3, there was a higher frequency of allele 2 (P =.047), but there was no significant difference between frequencies of homozygotes vs heterozygotes (P =.39) as reported in Alzheimer disease. D4 receptor distribution of long and short alleles did not differ between the 2 patient groups, and there were too few C alleles (3 of 86) to compare D2 allele genotypes or frequencies. For APOE, 12 cases and 12 controls carried E4 alleles (P>.99). CONCLUSIONS: With careful case-control matching, visual hallucinations in PD are not associated with the pattern seen for patients with Alzheimer disease and visual hallucinations. Furthermore, there was no association between hallucinations and APOE. Similar methods using larger sample sizes might be adapted to test whether specific dopaminergic receptor genetic variants are associated with visual hallucinations in PD. Based on our data, the DRD3 allele 2 may merit further study.

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PubMed2003

Visual hallucinations as REM sleep behavior disorders in patients with Parkinson's disease.

To clarify whether visual hallucinations in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are related to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, nocturnal polysomnographic variables were compared between a group with hallucinations (hallucinators, n = 14) and a group without hallucinations (nonhallucinators, n = 8). A multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) was performed on 3 hallucinators, and the content of dreams during daytime REM sleep was investigated. The efficacy of clonazepam, a standard treatment choice for REM sleep behavior disorders, was investigated in 8 hallucinators. Nocturnal polysomnograms of the hallucinators showed a higher amount of stage 1-REM sleep with tonic electromyogram (stage 1-REM) than the nonhallucinators, and the reported occurrences of nocturnal hallucinations corresponded with the periods of stage REM or stage 1-REM in most hallucinators. The frequency of sleep onset REM periods (SOREMP) on the MSLT were pathologically high in the hallucinators, and the content of the dreams during the MSLT period was quite similar to their hallucinations. During clonazepam treatment, the frequency of hallucinatory symptoms decreased in 5 of 8 hallucinators. These results indicate that visual hallucinations in PD are likely to be related to a REM sleep disorder manifested as the appearance of both stage 1-REM during the night and SOREMP in the daytime.

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PubMed2002

Determinants of occurrence and recovery from hallucinations in daily life.

BACKGROUND: Data related to the dynamics of hallucinatory experiences of patients suffering from schizophrenia are scarce. Detecting antecedent conditions and coping strategies may aid development of targeted psychological interventions. METHOD: We studied hallucinating and non-hallucinating patients suffering from schizophrenia spectrum disorder (n = 57), and non-schizophrenic severe mentally ill patients with depression (n = 37). Data were collected using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) over a period of 1 week. Contingent on a randomly signalling beep, subjects filled in reports of ongoing hallucinations as well as thought, mood, current activity, social circumstances and places frequented. RESULTS: More subjects suffering from schizophrenia reported hallucinations, but for all hallucinating subjects the qualities of hallucination episodes were quite similar. More subjects reported visual hallucinations at least once. In contrast, the intensity of auditory hallucinations was higher. Anxiety was the most prominent emotion during hallucinations and reports of anxiety intensity exceeded baseline levels before the first report of auditory hallucinations. Context modified hallucination intensity over the course of an episode. Social withdrawal resulted in a decrease of hallucinatory intensity (AH > VH), while social engagement slightly raised intensity levels (VH > AH). Doing nothing (VH > AH) and work activities (AH > VH) led to decreases in intensity levels over time, while passive leisure activities (watching TV) resulted in increases in intensity levels of hallucinations (AH > VH). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that hallucinating experiences are subject to a host of contextual influences. Understanding variation offers useful insights for therapy.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2006

Emotional prosodic processing in auditory hallucinations.

Deficits in emotional prosodic processing, the expression of emotions in voice, have been widely reported in patients with schizophrenia, not only in comprehending emotional prosody but also expressing it. Given that prosodic cues are important in memory for voice and speaker identity, Cutting has proposed that prosodic deficits may contribute to the misattribution that appears to occur in auditory hallucinations in psychosis. The present study compared hallucinating patients with schizophrenia, non-hallucinating patients and normal controls on an emotional prosodic processing task. It was hypothesised that hallucinators would demonstrate greater deficits in emotional prosodic processing than non-hallucinators and normal controls. Participants were 67 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (hallucinating=38, non-hallucinating=29) and 31 normal controls. The prosodic processing task used in this study comprised a series of semantically neutral sentences expressed in happy, sad and neutral voices which were rated on a 7-point Likert scale from sad (-3) through neutral (0) to happy (+3). Significant deficits in the prosodic processing tasks were found in hallucinating patients compared to non-hallucinating patients and normal controls. No significant differences were observed between non-hallucinating patients and normal controls. In the present study, patients experiencing auditory hallucinations were not as successful in recognising and using prosodic cues as the non-hallucinating patients. These results are consistent with Cutting's hypothesis, that prosodic dysfunction may mediate the misattribution of auditory hallucinations.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Prevalence of hallucinations and their pathological associations in the general population.

Hallucinations are perceptual phenomena involved in many fields of pathology. Although clinically widely explored, studies in the general population of these phenomena are scant. This issue was investigated using representative samples of the non-institutionalized general population of the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy aged 15 years or over (N=13,057). These surveys were conducted by telephone and explored mental disorders and hallucinations (visual, auditory, olfactory, haptic and gustatory hallucinations, out-of-body experiences, hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations). Overall, 38.7% of the sample reported hallucinatory experiences (19.6% less than once in a month; 6.4% monthly; 2.7% once a week; and 2.4% more than once a week). These hallucinations occurred, (1) At sleep onset (hypnagogic hallucinations 24.8%) and/or upon awakening (hypnopompic hallucinations 6.6%), without relationship to a specific pathology in more than half of the cases; frightening hallucinations were more often the expression of sleep or mental disorders such as narcolepsy, OSAS or anxiety disorders. (2) During the daytime and reported by 27% of the sample: visual (prevalence of 3.2%) and auditory (0.6%) hallucinations were strongly related to a psychotic pathology (respective OR of 6.6 and 5.1 with a conservative estimate of the lifetime prevalence of psychotic disorders in this sample of 0.5%); and to anxiety (respective OR of 5.0 and 9.1). Haptic hallucinations were reported by 3.1% with current use of drugs as the highest risk factor (OR=9.8). In conclusion, the prevalence of hallucinations in the general population is not negligible. Daytime visual and auditory hallucinations are associated with a greater risk of psychiatric disorders. The other daytime sensory hallucinations are more related to an organic or a toxic disorder.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease: a review and phenomenological survey.

OBJECTIVES: Between 8% and 40% of patients with Parkinson's disease undergoing long term treatment will have visual hallucinations during the course of their illness. There were two main objectives: firstly, to review the literature on Parkinson's disease and summarise those factors most often associated with hallucinations; secondly, to carry out a clinical comparison of ambulant patients with Parkinson's disease with and without visual hallucinations, and provide a detailed phenomenological analysis of the hallucinations. METHODS: A systematic literature search using standard electronic databases of published surveys and case-control studies was undertaken. In parallel, a two stage questionnaire survey was carried out based on members of a local branch of the Parkinson's Disease Society and followed up with a clinical interview. RESULTS: The review disclosed common factors associated with visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease including greater age and duration of illness, cognitive impairment, and depression and sleep disturbances. The survey comprised 21 patients with visual hallucinations and 23 without. The hallucinators had a longer duration and a greater severity of illness, and tended to show more depressed mood and cognitive impairment. The typical visual hallucination in these patients is a complex visual image experienced while they are alert and have their eyes open. The image appears without any known trigger or voluntary effort, is somewhat blurred, and commonly moves. It stays present for a period of "seconds" or "minutes". The content can be variable within and between hallucinators, and includes such entities as people, animals, buildings, or scenery. These features resemble those highlighted in hallucinations in the visually impaired (Charles Bonnet's syndrome). CONCLUSION: A consistent set of factors are associated with visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease. The results of the phenomenological survey and those of visual hallucinations carried out in other settings suggest a common physiological substrate for visual hallucinations but with cognitive factors playing an as yet unspecified role.

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PubMed2004

[Two cases of Parkinson's disease in which visual hallucinations disappeared after cataract surgery].

We report two cases of Parkinson's disease in which visual hallucinations disappeared after cataract surgery. Patient 1 was a 72-year-old woman with Parkinson's disease, visual hallucinations and musical hallucinations. Patient 2 was a 77-year-old woman with Parkinson's disease and visual hallucinations. Both patients had severe bilateral cataracts. Though it was difficult to control their visual hallucinations with medication only, cataract surgery made them disappeared quickly. The visual hallucinations of Parkinson's disease are similar to those of Charles Bonnet syndrome. For example, both hallucinations often happen in dim light, at night and when patients are awake with eyes open. Though there have been many reports describing visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease, there have been few reports discussing the relation between these hallucinations and impaired visual acuity. Similar to the hallucinations of Charles Bonnet syndrome, impaired visual acuity should be related to the visual hallucinations of Parkinson's disease. When Parkinson's disease, visual hallucinations and severe cataract coexist, visual hallucinations may disappear after cataract surgery.

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PubMed2000

The formed visual hallucinations associated with vision loss.

BACKGROUND: Patients with acquired visual impairment, but without mental illness, may experience repetitive episodes of vividly detailed, clearly focused, formed visual hallucinations. Yet these may not be shared voluntarily with clinicians. We wanted to learn: (1) the prevalence of formed visual hallucinations and (2) the nature of any changes in the hallucinations after more than two years. METHODS: Part I--Eighty-eight visually impaired adult patients at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary were surveyed during 1995. Age, gender, ocular diagnoses, visual acuities, and hallucination descriptions were recorded. Part II--Those subjects reporting hallucinations in 1995 were selected to participate in a second survey--more than two years later-to ascertain changes. RESULTS: Part I--Nine of 88 subjects (10.2% prevalence) reported formed visual hallucinations, frequently human faces or figures. Five additional subjects (5.6%) reported a history of formed hallucinations-beginning after their vision loss--that had either disappeared or changed to unformed hallucinations (lights and colors) before this survey. Part II--Seven of the eligible nine subjects were surveyed more than two years later. Hallucinations persisted for six. Five reported reduced frequency of hallucinations, despite failing acuity among four of these five. CONCLUSIONS: Formed visual hallucinations are not uncommon among patents with significant acquired losses in visual acuity and/or visual field (homonymous hemianopsia). Although formed hallucinations may persist for years, there appears to be a tendency toward reduced frequency of episodes over time. Silent isolated visual hallucinations, in the absence of psychopathology, imply an organic etiology. Eliciting these phenomena through an appropriate clinical history provides a valuable opportunity for referral, or patient education and reassurance.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

[A case of left dorsomedial thalamic infarction with unilateral schizophrenia-like auditory hallucinations].

We report a case of a right-handed, 73-year-old woman with auditory hallucinations lateralized to the right ear. A brain MRI revealed a small infarction in the left dorsomedial nucleus (DM) of the thalamus. The patient did not have either psychiatric or neurological prior history, and had otherwise been treated for ischemic heart disease, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia for 10 years. Two months prior to admission, she had become forgetful, and had lost her wallet several times. She concurrently began to experience auditory hallucinations in which she heard the voices of her acquaintances, or "the gods". She frequently monologized and wandered about outside following the contents of the hallucinations. Therefore, she was admitted to our institution. On admission, no apparent abnormalities were revealed by physical examinations or blood analyses. She was alert and had no aphasic symptoms. Except for memory disturbances, no neurological symptoms, including no hearing loss, were found. A brain MRI showed a small localized infarction in the left DM, but EEG findings were normal. The patient had prominent anterograde memory deficits: she hardly remembered what she had done the very same day, or the names of the doctor and hospital. She also demonstrated a retrograde amnesia of the past decade or two: she showed difficulty recalling either personal history or social events that occurred during this era. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) revealed a total IQ of 75 (verbal IQ 77; performance IQ 77). The verbal hallucinations continued with frequent occurrence even after admission. They included voices telling her about misfortunes, such as death or sickness, of her relatives. These turned into threats and commands, such as "I'm gonna kill ya. I attack you from behind. You, do not eat!" In addition, she occasionally experienced "third person auditory hallucination", in which several men were discussing the plan to kill her. As is characteristic of this type of case, the hallucinations always appeared in only her right ear. They did not occur in the other modalities (e.g. as a visual one). She was convinced that the hallucinations were real and looked frightened while they were happening. Whereas the anterograde amnesia continued for 6 months after admission, the retrograde amnesia gradually improved within 2 or 3 months after admission, although a partial amnesia on the past decade eventually turned out to persistent. On the other hand, the hallucinations did not ameliorate satisfactorily with risperidone (3-6 mg/day), but on augmentation with olanzapine (5-20 mg/day), they lessened gradually and almost disappeared within 6 months. She also slowly developed symptoms similar to those of frontal lobe syndrome, i.e., aspontaneity and apathy. In conclusion, our case indicates the importance of DM on memory function. It is noteworthy that schizophrenia-like hallucinations developed in the case. Localized neuronal deficits evoked by infarction in the left DM probably caused the schizophrenia-like hallucinations; the lateralization phenomenon further indicates the involvement of specific neuronal mechanisms in the mediation of the hallucinations. According to the knowledge of the functional anatomy of the DM and the lateralization phenomenon of auditory hallucinations, it is possible that the neuronal loop, comprised of the prefrontal cortex and thalamus, designated as "basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits", in addition to the left temporal cortex, plays an important role in the development of the hallucinations in this case. This possibility might also shed light on the neurological basis of schizophrenia.

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PubMed1996

Visual hallucinations associated with Parkinson disease.

OBJECTIVE: To determine factors that are predictive for the development of hallucinations associated with Parkinson disease (PD). BACKGROUND: Hallucinations are a common difficulty for patients with established PD, and hallucinations and psychosis may be the most common causes for nursing home placement. The characteristics of the hallucinations associated with PD differ from the hallucinations associated with schizophrenia or cocaine abuse. Multiple factors have been suggested as causal. DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 214 consecutive patients were interviewed during routine visits to the Parkinson's Disease Clinics in Columbus, Ohio, and Miami, Fla, using a hallucination questionnaire, Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination, and an attempt to correlate age, duration of disease, medication, and psychological or sleep disorders with the hallucinations. RESULTS: Hallucinations were almost exclusively visual and were present in 55 of the 214 patients. Dementia, age, duration of disease, history of depression, or history of sleep disorder were strongly associated with the hallucinations. CONCLUSIONS: While reduction in levodopa and anticholinergic medication doses is appropriate in the management of hallucinations, the factors that predispose patients to hallucinations include dementia and advancing age. The phenomena of visual hallucinations associated with PD, while not fully explained, are unique enough to be of interest to all neurologists and neuroscientists.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

Visual hallucinations in patients with retinal disease.

PURPOSE: To investigate the prevalence and phenomenologic nature of visual hallucinations among patients with retinal disease and to investigate whether presence of hallucinations is a significant predictor of functional status, quality of life, and/or emotional distress after adjusting for visual acuity. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: Eighty-six consecutive patients at the Wilmer Ophthalmologic Institute Retinal Vascular Center were interviewed using the Sickness Impact Profile, Community Disability Scale, General Health Questionnaire, Visual Phenomena Interview, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status. RESULTS: The prevalence of visual hallucinations was 15.1%. Most were formed hallucinations in clear consciousness that lasted for seconds to minutes. The majority of patients had been experiencing visual hallucinations for less than 1 year (61.5%) or for 1 to 2 years (23.1%). Only two of the 13 patients with hallucinations had informed a physician of their hallucinations. Univariate analyses revealed that variables significantly associated with experiencing hallucinations were female sex, worse visual acuity, bilateral visual impairment, emotional distress, decreased functional status, and decreased quality of life. Regression analysis demonstrated that among patients with relatively good vision, those who experienced hallucinations were more emotionally distressed and had a lower quality of life than patients without hallucinations. CONCLUSIONS: Visual hallucinations among patients with retinal disease are common, underdiagnosed, and not associated with cognitive deficits, abnormal personality traits, or a family or personal history of psychiatric morbidity. Among patients with relatively good vision, hallucinations are associated with increased emotional distress and decreased quality of life.

Cross-Sectional Studies↗
PubMed2001

Visual hallucinations: a prevalence study among hospice inpatients.

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of visual hallucinations among hospice inpatients, and the prevalence of a number of possible associated risk factors. One hundred consecutive admissions to St. John's Hospice in Wirral were screened for visual hallucinations in a semi-structured interview. The prevalence of opioid administration, other drugs known to cause hallucinations, brain tumours, liver metastases, bone metastases, lung metastases, known renal failure, eye disease, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, other neurodegenerative disorder, psychiatric disorder and epilepsy were also recorded. Subjects were screened for cognitive function using the Folstein mini-mental state examination (MMSE). Survival times from assessment to death were calculated. The results were analysed using arithmetical means with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Almost half (47%) the patients had experienced visual hallucinations within the previous month. Hypnagogic or hypnopompic hallucinations of a person standing by the bedside were the commonest type. Median survival time for hallucinators was 15 days (range 0-50 days) and for non-hallucinators was 11 days (range 0-89 days). There was no significant difference in cognitive scores between hallucinators and non-hallucinators. Hallucinations were associated with multiple possible risk factors in every case. Hallucinators were more likely to be taking opioids, although the association was not strong (odds ratio 4.48, 95% CI = 1.6-12.19), and were taking larger numbers of potentially hallucinogenic drugs. It is not clear why some patients on opioids hallucinate and others do not. Data on the prevalence of various possible risk factors yielded ample material for the planning of future studies.

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PubMed2004

Visual command hallucinations in a patient with pure alexia.

Around 25% of patients with visual hallucinations secondary to eye disease report hallucinations of text. The hallucinated text conveys little if any meaning, typically consisting of individual letters, words, or nonsense letter strings (orthographic hallucinations). A patient is described with textual visual hallucinations of a very different linguistic content following bilateral occipito-temporal infarcts. The hallucinations consisted of grammatically correct, meaningful written sentences or phrases, often in the second person and with a threatening and command-like nature (syntacto-semantic visual hallucinations). A detailed phenomenological interview and visual psychophysical testing were undertaken. The patient showed a classical ventral occipito-temporal syndrome with achromatopsia, prosopagnosia, and associative visual agnosia. Of particular significance was the presence of pure alexia. Illusions of colour induced by monochromatic gratings and a novel motion-direction illusion were also observed, both consistent with the residual capacities of the patient's spared visual cortex. The content of orthographic visual hallucinations matches the known specialisations of an area in the left posterior fusiform gyrus--the visual word form area (VWFA)--suggesting the two are related. The VWFA is unlikely to be responsible for the syntacto-semantic hallucinations described here as the patient had a pure alexic syndrome, a known consequence of VWFA lesions. Syntacto-semantic visual hallucinations may represent a separate category of textual hallucinations related to the cortical network implicated in the auditory hallucinations of schizophrenia.

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PubMed2002

Narcoleptic and schizophrenic hallucinations. Implications for differential diagnosis and pathophysiology.

The differential diagnosis of narcolepsy versus schizophrenia is sometimes complicated by similar phenomenology, particularly when hallucinations predominate. REM sleep disturbances seem fundamental in the pathophysiology of narcolepsy, and REM sleep intrusions during periods of wakefulness are often associated with hallucinations also in healthy controls and in patients with other brain disorders including schizophrenia. This study used a semistructured interview to investigate different aspects of hallucinations (frequency, modality, content, and dependence on body posture) in 148 patients with narcolepsy, 21 patients with acute exacerbation of a schizophrenic disorder, and 128 healthy subjects. About 80% of patients with narcolepsy, 81% of schizophrenics, and 37% of healthy subjects reported lifetime occurrence of hallucinations (at least once). Auditory hallucinations were reported by 81% of schizophrenic patients (narcoleptics 45%, healthy controls 9%), whereas 83% of narcoleptic patients reported visual hallucinations (schizophrenics 29%, healthy controls 19%). Kinetic hallucinations were experienced by 71% of patients with narcolepsy and 53% of healthy controls in contrast to only 5% of schizophrenics. Accordingly, the content of hallucinations differed substantially between the groups. Most hallucinations in narcoleptics but not in schizophrenics, were sleep-related and dependent on body posture. Taken together, the qualitative aspects of hallucinations in narcolepsy and schizophrenia were so different that a common underlying mechanism of hallucinations in the two conditions is unlikely. Although the clinical separation of patients with narcolepsy and schizophrenia with predominant hallucinations is sometimes difficult, clinical features including the patient's illness history, and careful psychopathological assessments can help to avoid misdiagnoses and treatment failures.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Genetic polymorphisms in Parkinson disease subjects with and without hallucinations: an analysis of the cholecystokinin system.

BACKGROUND: Hallucinations in patients with Parkinson disease (PD), occurring in about one third of those receiving long-term dopaminergic therapy, contribute to morbidity and mortality. In matched Chinese PD subjects with and without hallucinations, the presence of the -45 C/T locus in the cholecystokinin (CCK) gene, particularly when combined with the CCK receptor, CCKAR (cholecystokinin A receptor), C polymorphism, was associated with increased hallucination risk. Because CCK gene polymorphisms vary across ethnic groups, the presence of similar associations in white PD subjects merits investigation. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether polymorphisms of CCK and CCK receptor genes are associated with hallucinations in white PD subjects. DESIGN: Case-control study of PD subjects with and without chronic hallucinations matched for age and dopaminergic medication. Genomic DNA was analyzed for CCK, CCKAR, and CCKBR (cholecystokinin B receptor) polymorphisms by polymerase chain reaction. Genotype distributions and allele frequencies were compared between groups and in matched pairs. RESULTS: Comparing matched pairs, we found more frequent representation of the CCK T allele in hallucinating PD subjects, although this finding was not statistically significant (P =.06). Of 5 cases with both CCK T and CCKAR C alleles, 4 were hallucinators. Cases and controls did not differ in CCKAR or CCKBR polymorphisms. CONCLUSIONS: Our study supports a previous association of hallucinations in PD subjects with the CCK T allele and the combined CCK T and CCKAR C allele, suggesting that the CCK system may influence the development of hallucinations in PD subjects. The lower representation of the T allele in our white sample limited our statistical power. Further assessment of the T allele as a risk factor for hallucinations would include longitudinal study of nonhallucinators to detect the evolution of hallucinations relative to T allele frequency.

Aged↗
PubMed2006

The malignant course of "benign hallucinations" in Parkinson disease.

OBJECTIVE: To monitor progression of "benign hallucinations" in Parkinson disease (PD). METHODS: We searched our data repository for subjects with PD with 3 sets of neuropsychological testing during 3 years and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale thought disorder scores taken at 4- to 12-month intervals during this period. We found 48 patients with benign hallucinations, defined as a thought disorder score of 2 (benign hallucinations, insight retained), receiving no treatment for hallucinations. We followed up thought disorder scores under best medical management for at least 3 years or until a thought disorder score of 3 (loss of insight) or 4 (delusions) occurred. In subjects whose thought disorder scores remained at 2, we assessed neuroleptic use and decreases in PD medications to abate hallucinations. RESULTS: Most subjects (81%) progressed to thought disorder scores of 3 or 4. In 7 (78%) of 9 subjects who retained a thought disorder score of 2, PD medications were reduced to treat hallucinations, and 3 subjects (33%) also received neuroleptics. If the composite end point (any of the criteria) was used, 96% of subjects progressed, with only 2 subjects continuing with stable, untreated benign hallucinations. CONCLUSIONS: Because hallucinations progress, the concept of benign hallucinations is prognostically misleading. Though hallucinations with retained insight may be "benign" for the moment, they portend serious consequences. The term benign hallucinations of PD should be considered generally unsound and dropped from operative vocabulary.

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