Perceptual Characteristics Distinguishing Auditory Hallucinations in Schizophrenia and Acute Alcoholic Psychoses
MURRAY ALPERT PH.D.1, and
KENNETH N. SILVERS M.D.2
1 Associate professor and head of psychology laboratories, department of psychiatry, New York University Medical School, 550 1st Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016
2 Instructor in residence, department of psychiatry, U.C.L.A. School of Medicine, Los Angeles, Calif.
By means of a questionnaire the authors compared the characteristics of auditory hallucinations experienced by 45 schizophrenics and those experienced by 18 patients with alcoholic hallucinosis. The alcoholics' hallucinations were localized in space and had a greater frequency than those of the schizophrenics; the frequency was relatively independent of emotional state. The schizophrenics' hallucinations had a cognitive taint, were poorly localized, and showed a sensitivity to emotional arousal.
