Hallucinations figure prominently in a range of psychiatric disorders but, to date, their developmental origins are not well understood. The aim of the present article is to explore how ideas from mainstream developmental psychology can enhance understanding of how hallucinations develop in different modalities across the lifecourse. Hallucinations vary in their clinical significance depending...
BACKGROUND: Sleep dysfunction shares a bidirectional relationship with hallucinatory experiences, with the strongest path from sleep dysfunction to the occurrence of hallucinatory experiences. This review aimed to identify potential mechanisms through which sleep dysfunction leads to hallucinations. STUDY DESIGN: A narrative review was conducted across 4 levels of explanation: phenomenology...
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...
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...
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...