6minutes, Australia - Dec 3, 2008Full story here
Almost one in ten Aussie teens experiences hallucinations at some time but this doesn’t mean they’re more prone to psychosis or other mental illness, researchers say this week.
A national survey of more than 1200 adolescents aged 13-17 years old found that 8.4% reported either auditory or visual hallucinations such as hearing voices when they are alone or seeing things that other people think are not there.
The survey results, published in the journal Schizophrenia Research (online 29 Nov), showed that hallucinations were three times more common in children of single parent or divorced families and also more common in teens who used cannabis, but not in those who used alcohol. Hallucinations were also more likely to be reported by children with depression.
The study authors, from the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane said that as in adults, hallucinations in teens could be a sign of previous psychological trauma. However, while hallucinations were frequent, they were part of a continuum and did not necessarily represent a risk of psychosis.
“Clearly most adolescents who experienced hallucinations in this study will not subsequently develop a psychotic disorder,” they noted.
3 comments:
i am wondering if anyone has heard or done any research about the possiblity of risk of hallucinations being more common in teens that have just hit puberty -dealing with hormonal/body changes, especially in those that were diagnosed with epilepsy/seizures from the time they were a baby up until kindergarten first grade (controlled by meds once the right med was found) i have a friend whose 15 year old daughter is dealing with this right now, and prior to these hallucinations, she never even had any type of imagination - thank you for any help you can offer.
I can't offer any help except to say that my 14 year old daughter is going through the exact same thing. She was diagnosed with absence epilepsy when she was 9 and has just recently developed visual hallucinations, particularly when she is angry or stressed. We hope to get in to her neurologist soon as our GP has no experience with this kind of thing. I am reducing her meds slightly to see if that has any effect. We are also taking her to a naturopathic doctor to get another opinion re: lifestyle, diet, allergies, etc
Good luck to your friend -let her know that she is not alone - I will continue to monitor this site and will post a comment if we get any answers.
thanks for letting me know that she's not alone...
i'm sorry that you are having to deal with this as well..
the psychiatrist put her on the lowest level of ablify, she's been on that almost a week, it has slowed down some of what's been going on, and she's had little side effects thankfully with the new drug...
for her it's similar that stressors seem to bring out the hallucinations more...
but she's also having her period every 2 weeks as well...
so they have lots of dr's appts -psychiatrist, pediatrician, neurologist and now gynelogical...
its hard to watch her mom deal with this, and hard to watch them have to jump thru hoops to try to get some solid help...
the pharmacist that talked to her mom about taking the new meds said that her adopted son had epilepsy at a young age, and also hit this at about 14, and it took about a year and a half for things to mellow out...
it's certainly atypical schizoprenia -even though that's technically what the dr put her on meds for... only one piece of her hallucinations were scary - a big green monster, and the rest are actually all hannah montana characters and she seems to replay scenes, and has them sorta interacting with her in her daily life...
it seems that there should be some research out there, as i hear more similar stories, but still can't find any...
i wish you the best as you deal with this with your daughter, and i will definitely let my friend know she's not alone...
it's hard 'cause she's a single mom, and right now can't really leave her alone, just in case... she's not been in school at all for around a month, 'cause it was causing problems at school.
this weekend, i'm watching her daughter while her mom is working... i'm looking forward to it, to sorta check in and see how things are going, plus her daughter loves my puppy!!
and i'll keep checking back too, to see how you guys are doing with all this...
do take care.
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