Download Auditory Hallucinations

Auditory Hallucinations
Ashley Grooms
What are auditory hallucinations?
´ Auditory Hallucinations = perceptions of sound in absence of an external
stimulus (usually accompanied by a compelling sense of reality)
´ Often associated with schizophrenia
´ Can occur in healthy individuals as well
´ Up to 1 in 25 people hear voices regularly
´ Up to 40% experience them at some point in their lives
´ What makes it pathological/an illness is the frequency with which it occurs
Factors Associated with Auditory
Hallucinations
´ High caffeine consumption
´ Sensory Deprivation
´ Intense Emotions (ex: Grief)
´ Stress/Hyperarousal
´ Sleep Deprivation
´ Drug Use
´ Genetic Factors
´ Altered Brain Connectivity
´ Pattern Matching Activity
´ Psychiatric Illness/Neurological Damage
Pattern Matching
Altered Brain Connectivity
´ Within auditory cortex or the frontal lobe (deals with sensation and
perception of sound)
´ “…as if the string section of the orchestra suddenly decided to play its own
music, disregarding everyone else.”
´ May misattribute internally generated speech to an external source (loss of
a boundary between self and others)
´ Possibly caused by an altered connectivity in sensory system structures
Different Perceptions of Auditory
Hallucinations
´ Sounds
´ Repeating Phrases
´ Musical Hallucinations
´ Hearing a voice speak one’s thoughts
´ Hearing one or more voices arguing or talking
´ Hearing a voice narrating one’s actions
´ Running Commentary
´ Commands
Main Disorders Associated with This
´ Hallucinations present differently depending on the cause of the
hallucinations
´ Bipolar Disorder can cause psychosis and auditory hallucinations
´ Mania: feeling “high”/elated; increased energy; increased activity; feeling
jumpy/”wired”; decrease in sleep; rapid speech; agitated/”touchy“; racing
thoughts; risky behavior; increased self-confidence
´ Depression: “feeling blue”; decrease in energy; decreased activity; feeling
sluggish; increase or decrease in sleep; low opinion of oneself
´ Also present in Schizophrenia (disconnect from reality)
´ Often intertwined with delusions
Listening Example
´ Difficult to replicate this kind of experience artificially
´ Example of the kinds of hallucinations that occur in Schizophrenia and
Pyschotic Depressive Examples:
´ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vvU-Ajwbok
´ Try to imagine hearing this on top of all of the things that you hear from day
to day
´ How did this make you feel?
How are these treated?
´ Important to acknowledge them as real to the client
´ Teach people how to interact with the voices (alter the reaction)
´ Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (newer)
´ Electroconvulsive Therapy
´ Medication: anti-psychotics
´ Essentially all of these approaches involve calming the brain
´ Often difficult for full eradication of the voices
References
Boksa, P. (2009). “On the neurobiology of hallucinations”. Journal of Psychiatry
andNeuroscience, 34(4), 260-262.
Denoon, D. (2000). “Zapping those voices in the head.” Retrieved from
www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/news/20000323/schizophrenia-voices-in-head-relief.
Dickey, C. (2016). “A maddening sound.” New Republic, 247(5), 50-57.
[Electronic Photo of Brain Structure]. Retrieved from mybrainonline.ca/?page=3
Hemming, J., & Merrill, J. (2015). “on the distinction between involuntary musical imagery,
musical hallucinosis, and musical hallucinations. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and
Brain, 25(4), 435-442.
Jenner, J. (2016). Hallucination-focused integrative therapy: a specific treatment that hits
auditory verbal hallucinations. New York; NY, US: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Lee Adams, W. (2015). “The whisper whisperers.” Newsweek Global, 164(3), 50.
Wale, J. [Jarrad Wale]. (2011, Jun. 13). Auditory hallucinations – an audio representation
[Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vvU-Ajwbok