Musical hallucinations and Parkinson disease.
BACKGROUND
Musical hallucinations are complex auditory hallucinations. The term covers the clinical phenomenon of hearing tunes and melodies that are uncontrollable and not related to external stimuli. Musical hallucinations may be experienced in a variety of conditions including diseases of the ear and neurologic, psychiatric, infectious, and toxic states. When the underlying pathology resolves, musical hallucinations tend to disappear.


METHODS
We present an elderly man with musical hallucinations and without any conditions known to be related with its occurrence, except for Parkinson disease.


CONCLUSIONS
Musical hallucinations in the elderly occur predominantly in women with a hearing impairment. Parkinson disease is usually accompanied by visual hallucinations. Auditory hallucinations are rare in Parkinson disease and most of them are accompanied by visual hallucinations. Isolated auditory hallucinations are rarer in Parkinson disease and mostly consist of human voices.
Ergün
Ufuk
U
Department of Neurology, Ministry of Health Ankara Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey. ufukergun@yahoo.com
Bozbaş
Ayla
A
Akin
Umit
U
Inan
Levent
L
D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D034381:Hearing Loss; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*