Am J Psychiatry 1996; 153:265-267
Copyright © 1996 by American Psychiatric Association
Qualitative changes in hallucinations
LJ Miller
Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois, Chicago 60612, USA.
OBJECTIVE: This study examined which characteristics of hallucinations are
most likely to change after inpatient treatment. METHOD: Fifty
hallucinating psychiatric inpatients were given semistructured interviews
shortly after admission and again shortly before discharge to elicit
detailed descriptions of 12 characteristics of hallucinations. RESULTS:
Twenty-eight (56%) of the 50 patients continued to report hallucinations
after inpatient treatment. Posttreatment hallucinations differed
significantly from pretreatment hallucinations in that they were less
frequent, less intense, and less likely to prompt overt behavioral
responses. Other characteristics of hallucinations remained relatively
stable. CONCLUSIONS: Even when treatment does not eliminate hallucinations,
it may alter them significantly. Outcome criteria that consider only the
presence or absence of hallucinations may miss important changes in the
nature of the symptom. This demonstrates that there is no simple "on-off
switch" for hallucinations and supports multifactorial theories of the
etiology of hallucinations.
