Auditory Hallucinations as Symptoms

Auditory hallucinations occur when a person perceives sound in the absence of external stimuli. Auditory hallucinations are heard rather then seen, felt, tasted or smelled, although a person can experience hallucinations through more than one sense simultaneously. The perceived stimuli can be a human voice, music or other sounds that seems to come from outside. These sounds feel and appear as real as the external stimuli we all perceive. The content of auditory hallucinations can reassure, threaten, command, warn or prove indecipherable.

Psychoses

• The most common diagnosis that includes reports of auditory hallucinations is psychosis, particularly schizophrenia. According to the St. Louis Psychologists and Counseling Information and Referral website, research done on schizophrenic patients expressing these hallucinations showed that most of them "actually produce the nerve signals of the sounds, inside of their brains and then believe that external sources are responsible."

Seizure Disorder

• Another ailment listing auditory hallucination as a symptom is epilepsy, or seizure disorder. In several cases reported, hallucination was the only manner in which a seizure episode manifested. Most reported cases involved the auditory hallucination of hearing human voices speak.

Other Conditions

• Auditory hallucinations have also been a symptom of hypothyroidism or thyroid deficiency, severe vitamin B12 deficiency and advanced syphilis infection. It has also been mentioned in cases of hyperparathyroidism. This is when the parathyroid, a small endocrine gland in the neck, becomes hyperactive and generates a high amount of calcium in the blood.

Alzheimer's disease

• Dr. Otis Brawley, Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society, says that auditory hallucinations are sometimes -- although rarely -- reported by Alzheimer's patients. Brawley says they "can rarely be seen in patients with Alzheimer's disease and several of the common dementias, but it's more often associated with a number of other conditions." He mentions that an elderly patient being confused about unfamiliar surroundings such as a hospital can experience a disorienting effect known as "sundowning." When sundowning, people can report hallucinations or misinterpret the effect as auditory hallucinations.

Other Explanations

• Auditory hallucinations have been linked to side effects associated with prescription medication, usually narcotic pain relievers, anti-hypertensive and anti-anxiety drugs. Alcohol withdrawal and migraine headaches have also been used to explain auditory hallucinations.

Anxiety, OCD and PTSD

• Floyd R. Sallee MD, a professor at the University of Cincinnati, has found auditory hallucinations to be a symptom of anxiety, often in patients diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD.) He says, "Auditory hallucinations occur usually in the context of anxiety symptoms generally worsening. I have had cases of both OCD and PTSD where auditory hallucinations were prominent, and almost always the symptom was more or less a marker of general severity. The good news is that mental health professionals know how to treat auditory hallucinations very effectively."

Warning

• Auditory hallucinations can be difficult to diagnose. Suspected cases causing concern should be brought to the attention of one or more medical professionals.