title: Visual hallucinations in patients from an ophthalmology clinic and medical clinic population.
abstract: Although visual hallucinations have been associated with patients with visual disorders, no study has specifically examined whether visual hallucinations are indeed more prevalent than in a general medical population. In this study, 127 consecutive visual disorder patients and 100 consecutive general medical patients were screened for complex visual hallucinations. A total of 6.3% of visual disorder patients and 2% of general medical patients had visual hallucinations. Interestingly, the two medical patients with visual hallucinations also had visual disorders. Factors significantly associated with visual hallucinations were female sex (p = .029) and lower cognitive score (p = .001). Data from a previous study of patients with the visual disorder age-related macular degeneration were combined with this study to increase the sample size of visual hallucinators. Factors significantly associated with visual hallucinations in the combined sample were female sex (p = .015), living alone (p = .019), having hearing problems (p = .047), older age (p = .013), and lower cognitive score (p < .001). Implications and future research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Holroyd
authors.forename: P V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Rabins
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Finkelstein
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lavrisha
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015897:Comorbidity; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005128:Eye Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012737:Sex Factors; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D014796:Visual Perception