Correlates of the Affective Impact of Auditory Hallucinations in Psychotic Disorders

While many who hear auditory hallucinations (AHs) experience them as unpleasant, some do not. Little is known about the correlates of AHs that are not unpleasant, or of the characteristics of those who hear them. To better understand this symptom, we used a comprehensive structured interview schedul...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Schizophrenia bulletin 2004, Vol.30 (1), p.163-171
Main Authors: Copolov, David L., Mackinnon, Andrew, Trauer, Tom
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Affect
Auditory Hallucinations
Biological and medical sciences
Cross-Sectional Studies
Delusions
Emotions
Female
Hallucinations - psychology
Human
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Other psychotic disorders
Perception
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychoses
Psychosis
Psychotic Disorders - complications
Psychotic Disorders - psychology
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:While many who hear auditory hallucinations (AHs) experience them as unpleasant, some do not. Little is known about the correlates of AHs that are not unpleasant, or of the characteristics of those who hear them. To better understand this symptom, we used a comprehensive structured interview schedule to study 199 subjects who had experienced AHs. Subjects' responses to AHs were combined into two indexes: one assessing total affective impact and the other assessing the affective direction (positive or negative). Subjects who had grandiose delusions experienced their AHs more positively. AHs that were more frequent, lasted longer, and were louder were experienced more negatively. AHs heard in the second person and those related to people with whom the subjects had personal relationships were more positive than those heard in the third person. Many other aspects of AHs were unrelated to total affective impact or direction. It is argued that the positive evaluation of voices by subjects requires greater attention than it has received previously. Implications for assessment, clinical practice, and research are discussed.
ISSN:0586-7614
1745-1701
DOI:10.1093/oxfordjournals.schbul.a007060