An epidemiological study on the prevalence of hallucinations in a general-population sample: Effects of age and sensory modality.
Psychiatry Research February 1, 2019 Frank Larøi, Josef J Bless, Julien Laloyaux et al.
Hallucination prevalence decreases with age across all sensory modalities—auditory, visual, olfactory, and tactile—as well as for sensed presence and hypnagogic/hypnopompic types. In a large representative Norwegian sample, young adults (19–30 years) reported the highest rates, middle-aged (31–60) intermediate, and older adults (61–96) the lowest. Anxiety partially mediated this age effect, while depression acted as a partial suppressor. Co-occurrence of auditory and visual hallucinations was minimal across all age groups. The general population reports a wider variety of hallucination modalities than is typically seen in clinical populations.