Prevalence of Hallucinations in the General Croatian Population.

Jelinčić Ivana,Degmečić Dunja

doi:10.3390/ijerph18084237

Abstract

Background: Hallucinations involve sensing things such as visions, sounds, or smells that seem real but are not. These things are created by the mind. However, little is known about the distribution of incident hallucinations in the community. This paper aims to examine manifestation and frequency of the hallucinatory experiences within the general Croatian population. Methods: The instrument of the survey is Chicago Hallucination Assessment Tool (CHAT). The study included 521 examinees; 284 females (54.5%) and males 237 (45.5%). Results: There was a manifestation of all types of hallucinatory experiences determined. Out of all of the participants 17% listed that they experienced acoustic hallucinations during their lifetime, 15% said that they have experienced visual hallucinations, 12% olfactory hallucinations, 10% gustatory and 12% tactile/cenesthetic hallucinations. Conclusion: The results of this research have indicated that simple hallucinations were mostly represented among the general Croatian population and those more complex were represented less which is a positive thing because of its prominent clinical significance. The contribution of this study is the possibility of comparisons with studies from different regions of Europe and the world. This is another component in a better understanding of the incidence of hallucinations in the general population. The data we have obtained puts us on the map of countries trying to raise awareness of a topic that needs to acquire more attention.

Highlights

American psychiatric association (APA) defines hallucinations as compelling sense of reality but that happens without the external stimulation of the corresponding sense organ
There are many instruments developed that do the research of the hallucinatory experiences and many studies have discovered that the hallucinations are experienced by individuals from non-clinical sample of the population
The results of a large research about prevalence of psychotic symptoms in a form of visual or acoustic hallucinations have discovered that 12.7% of examinees have reported that they experienced one or more hallucinations during their lifetime

Summary

Introduction

Hallucinations as experiences are as old as the human species and all the way until the. 19th century these experiences were explained as something mystical or divine. American psychiatric association (APA) defines hallucinations as compelling sense of reality but that happens without the external stimulation of the corresponding sense organ. They can affect any sense organ or different sensory modalities in case of complex hallucinations [2]. Hallucinations involve sensing things such as visions, sounds, or smells that seem real but are not. These things are created by the mind.

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Discussion

Conclusion