JMIR Mental Health
June 16, 2026
Lorenzo Ghelfi, Jack Healy, Francesco Piacenza et al.
Abstract Background Psychotic disorder represents a leading cause of disability worldwide, and relapse in psychosis is common. Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly recognized as a method that could aid clinical monitoring for individuals experiencing psychosis. Objective This review aims to map the existing literature on AI-based approaches—including machine learning, deep learning, and...
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
September 1, 2024
Jesca E. de Jager, Rutger Boesjes, Gijs H J Roelandt et al.
13 citations
Electroconvulsive shocks (ECS) and ketamine are antidepressant treatments with a relatively fast onset of therapeutic effects compared to conventional medication and psychotherapy. While the exact neurobiological mechanisms underlying the antidepressant response of ECS and ketamine are unknown, both interventions are associated with neuroplasticity. Restoration of neuroplasticity may be a...
Schizophrenia Bulletin
March 22, 2023
Eric J Tan, Iris E C Sommer, Lena Palaniyappan
This special issue of DISCOURSE in Psychosis focuses on the role of language in psychosis, including the relationships between formal thought disorder and conceptual disorganization, with speech and language markers and the neural mechanisms underlying these features in psychosis. It also covers the application of computational techniques in the study of language in psychosis, as well as the...
Schizophrenia Bulletin
February 24, 2023
Salma M Khaled, Sanne G Brederoo, Arij Yehya et al.
8 citations
While literature indicates that culture modulates phenomenological characteristics of hallucinations in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, little is known about the extent culture modulates these characteristics in nonclinical samples. We compared lifetime prevalence, age of onset, and phenomenology of hallucinations as assessed with the Questionnaire for Psychotic Experiences between samples of...
Schizophrenia Bulletin
February 24, 2023
André Aleman, Iris E C Sommer
1 citation
Hallucinations are intriguing phenomena that may negatively impact several aspects of life in people with or without a psychiatric disorder. Being sensory experiences without corresponding external stimulation of the relevant senses, they may arise from a confusion between internally generated and externally presented stimuli. They can occur in different modalities and take on different forms...
Schizophrenia Bulletin
February 1, 2023
Sanne G Brederoo, Janna De Boer, Mascha M J Linszen et al.
Background and hypothesis: The social deafferentation hypothesis (SDA) has been proposed as an explanatory mechanism of hallucinations, based on the theory that social withdrawal triggers the initial phase of schizophrenia. The current study tests the SDA by assessing how loneliness is associated with different types of hallucinations. Under the SDA, increased loneliness is hypothesized to...
Schizophrenia
April 23, 2022
Mascha M J Linszen, Janna De Boer, Maya Schutte et al.
55 citations
Although epidemiological studies report that hallucinations occur in 6-15% of the general population, little is known about their phenomenology. To overcome this paucity, this study investigates the phenomenological characteristics of hallucinations in the general population, by using a nationally promoted online survey to assess hallucination phenomenology in four sensory modalities, through a...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
2022
Arij Yehya, Salma M Khaled, Iris E C Sommer et al.
4 citations
Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are hallucinatory or delusional experiences that fall below the threshold of a diagnosable psychotic disorder. Although PLEs are common across the spectrum of psychiatric disorders, they also have been commonly reported in the general population. In this study, we aimed to describe the types of PLEs experienced by university students in Qatar. Furthermore, we...
Scientific Reports
April 8, 2021
Sanne G Brederoo, Janna De Boer, Jacqueline de Vries et al.
Although previous studies reported a link between sleep problems and the occurrence of hallucinations, more detailed information is needed to translate this association into clinical practice. This study investigates sleep quality and its relation to prevalence, type, content, and phenomenology of hallucinations, using an online survey in a large population sample (n = 10,299). Based on...
BMJ Case Reports
June 27, 2018
Iris E C Sommer, Hidde Kleijer, Lucy Visser et al.
Hallucinations, visual, auditory or in another sensory modality, often respond well to treatment in patients with schizophrenia. Some, however, do not and can be very chronic and debilitating. We present a patient with schizophrenia with intractable hallucinations despite state of the art care, including high-dose clozapine and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Based on the possible role of...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
2018
Christina W. Slotema, Jan Dirk Blom, Marieke B A Niemantsverdriet et al.
Background: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are experienced more frequently by patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) than previously assumed. However, consensus is lacking on how to treat them. Objective: To provide a systematic review of studies reporting on AVH in patients with BPD, with a focus on the efficacy of treatment of psychotic symptoms. Methods: For this review a...
NeuroImage: Clinical
2018
Jasper Looijestijn, Jan Dirk Blom, Hans W Hoek et al.
The various models proposed for the mediation of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) implicate a considerable number of brain areas and mechanisms. To establish which of those mechanisms are actually involved in the mediation of AVH, we developed a novel method to analyze functional MRI data, which allows for the detection of the full network of mutually interacting brain states, and the...
Psychological Medicine
July 2016
Kirstin Daalman, Kelly Diederen, L Hoekema et al.
Previously, we described 103 adults (mean age 41 years) who experienced frequent, auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), in the absence of a need for mental healthcare. Importantly, these adults were largely past the peak incidence age for psychosis (15-35 years). It is unclear if these older individuals with AVH are still at increased risk for psychosis or other psychopathology. To address this...
Frontiers in Psychology
June 16, 2015
Jan Coebergh, R F Lauw, R Bots et al.
Background: Despite an increased scientific interest in musical hallucinations over the past 25 years, treatment protocols are still lacking. This may well be due to the fact that musical hallucinations have multiple causes, and that published cases are relatively rare. Objective: To review the effects of published treatment methods for musical hallucinations. Methods: A literature search...
Schizophrenia Bulletin
July 2014
Judith M. Ford, Sarah E Morris, Ralph E Hoffman et al.
We explore how hallucinations might be studied within the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework, which asks investigators to step back from diagnoses based on symptoms and focus on basic dimensions of functioning. We start with a description of the objectives of the RDoC project and its domains and constructs. Because the RDoC initiative asks...
Schizophrenia Bulletin
July 2014
Louise C Johns, Kristiina Kompus, Melissa Connell et al.
Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are complex experiences that occur in the context of various clinical disorders. AVH also occur in individuals from the general population who have no identifiable psychiatric or neurological diagnoses. This article reviews research on AVH in nonclinical individuals and provides a cross-disciplinary view of the clinical relevance of these experiences in...
Schizophrenia Bulletin
July 2014
Simon McCarthy-Jones, Neil Thomas, Clara Strauss et al.
The phenomenological diversity of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) is not currently accounted for by any model based around a single mechanism. This has led to the proposal that there may be distinct AVH subtypes, which each possess unique (as well as shared) underpinning mechanisms. This could have important implications both for research design and clinical interventions because different...
Psychological Medicine
December 2012
Kirstin Daalman, Kelly Diederen, E M Derks et al.
Hallucinations have consistently been associated with traumatic experiences during childhood. This association appears strongest between physical and sexual abuse and auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). It remains unclear whether traumatic experiences mainly colour the content of AVH or whether childhood trauma triggers the vulnerability to experience hallucinations in general. In order to...
Psychological Medicine
September 2012
Christina W. Slotema, Kirstin Daalman, J D Blom et al.
Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are frequently claimed to be brief, less severe and qualitatively different from those in schizophrenia, hence the term 'pseudohallucinations'. AVH in BPD may be more similar to those experienced by healthy individuals, who experience AVH in a lower frequency and with a more positive content than AVH in...
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
May 9, 2012
Kelly Maria Johanna Diederen, Remko Van Lutterveld, Iris E C Sommer
Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) or "voices" are a characteristic symptom of schizophrenia, but can also be observed in healthy individuals in the general population. As these non-psychotic individuals experience AVH in the absence of other psychiatric symptoms and medication-use they provide an excellent model to study AVH in isolation. Indeed a number of studies used this approach and...
Schizophrenia Bulletin
January 26, 2012
Oliver Howes, Paul Shotbolt, Michael Bloomfield et al.
94 citations
Background: The psychosis phenotype appears to exist in the population as a continuum, but it is not clear if subclinical psychotic symptoms and psychotic disorders share the same neurobiology. We investigated whether the dopaminergic dysfunction seen in psychotic disorders is also present in healthy, well-functioning people with hallucinations. Methods: We compared dopamine synthesis capacity...
Schizophrenia Research
August 2011
Christian D Schubart, Iris E C Sommer, Willemijn A Van Gastel et al.
Cannabis is associated with psychotic outcomes in numerous studies, an effect that is commonly attributed to Δ (9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ 9-THC). An increasing number of authors identify cannabidiol, another component of the cannabis plant, as an antipsychotic agent. The objective of the current study is to investigate the role of cannabidiol content in the association between cannabis use and...
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
May 2011
Chris D Schubart, Marco P Boks, E J Breetvelt et al.
To investigate the relationship between cannabis use and mental health. A cross-sectional analysis in a sample of 17 698 individuals with a mean age of 22 years (SD: 4.2). Participants provided information on the amount and initial age of cannabis use and history of psychiatric hospitalizations through a web-based questionnaire. To quantify Δ(9) -tetrahydrocannabinol exposure, we...
The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
March 2011
Kirstin Daalman, Marco P Boks, Kelly Diederen et al.
Whereas auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are most characteristic of schizophrenia, their presence has frequently been described in a continuum, ranging from severely psychotic patients to schizotypal personality disorder patients to otherwise healthy participants. It remains unclear whether AVHs at the outer borders of this spectrum are indeed the same phenomenon. Furthermore, specific...