In a small 2018 study (Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, May-June), 35 percent of participants reported these, along with
visual hallucinations. Auditory hallucinations tended to be more common in older people, women, people with hearing impairment, and those taking antipsychotic medications.
Selective diplopia in Parkinson's disease: a special subtype of
visual hallucination? Mov Disord.
Finally, while psychiatric disorders can certainly cause
visual hallucinations, they occur in only a small percentage of cases.
However, this is the first reported case of
visual hallucinations occurring exclusively with eye closure secondary to hyponatremia.
Visual hallucinations (VHs) were diagnosed when a clinical history of recurrent complex VHs were present.
The patient reported auditory and
visual hallucinations and was observed to be internally preoccupied.
This syndrome with an estimated prevalence of 0.4% up to 30% in the overall population [41-45] dates back to a Swiss scientist named Charles-Bonnet, who described the occurrence of detailed
visual hallucinations including figures, persons, and animals in his visually impaired grandfather, after losing his sight due to a bilateral cataract surgery.
Visual hallucinations and disturbing, vivid dreams are also common.
However, if the patient has not experienced hallucinations previously or is experiencing a new form of hallucinations (e.g.,
visual hallucinations when previously only auditory had been present), then it may be advisable to eliminate causes not related to schizophrenia.
The patient is a 38 years old man, from Galati, and arrived with his family at "Socola" Institute of Psychiatry in May 2015, complaining of psychomotor restlessness, bizarre smiling, blunt affect, olfactory and
visual hallucinations ("I can smell smoke!", "I see flames and people burning...", "The Gates of Hell are under the floor of my house and they are trying to drag me there!"), mixed insomnia, suspiciousness and delusional ideation of prejudice and prosecution ("There are many people who want to hurt me and I don't understand what's their problem with me").
An 89-year-old man with a history of hypertension, dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, gout, stage 4 chronic kidney disease (creatinine clearance 17 ml/min), venous insufficiency with lower limb edema, liver metastases from colon neoplasia and prostate neoplasia with partial prostatectomy, and no prior history of cognitive impairment was admitted to the emergency of the Centre Hospitalier de l'Universite de Montreal (CHUM) after experiencing
visual hallucinations. The patient saw 50 people in his apartment and had gone to his neighbour's house to hide.