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Visual Hallucinations and Sensory Delusions in the Elderly

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

G. E. Berrios  and
P. Brook
G. E. Berrios*
Affiliation:
Associate Lecturer in Psychiatry Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Level 4, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge
P. Brook
Affiliation:
Associate Lecturer in Psychiatry Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Level 4, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge
*
∗Correspondence
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Summary

One hundred and fifty successive referrals to a psychogeriatrician were assessed for visual hallucinations. Forty-four (29.33 per cent) patients reported visual perceptual disturbances. No differences between hallucinators and non-hallucinators were found in terms of sex, age, length of illness, underlying psychiatric diagnosis or cognitive score. There was a significant correlation between presence of hallucinations and eye pathology (<.001) and delusions (<.001). The phenomenological characteristics of the visual hallucinations are analyzed. The “picture” sign is described in 7 patients and the Charles Bonnet syndrome in two. The significance of these findings is discussed.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 144 , Issue 6 , June 1984 , pp. 662 - 664
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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