Contents:
- Medical Video: Little Known Scientific Facts About Hallucinations in the Elderly
- What causes a person to experience auditory hallucinations?
- 1. Mental disorders
- 2. You consume alcohol and illegal drugs
- 3. Alzheimer's disease and brain tumors
- 4. hearing loss
- 5. Migraine
- 6. Side effects of medication
- 7. Other causes
- How do doctors diagnose hallucinations?
- How to treat it?
Medical Video: Little Known Scientific Facts About Hallucinations in the Elderly
Hearing hallucinations are the most common type of hallucinations, which cause a person to hear sounds such as music, footsteps, conversation, laughter, screams and other sounds - but others don't hear them. This hallucination can disturb people and trigger debate.
Hallucinations occur when the brain senses or processes a thing that doesn't really happen. What causes a person to experience auditory hallucinations?
What causes a person to experience auditory hallucinations?
1. Mental disorders
Many mental disorders can cause a person to be unable to distinguish reality and imagination, such as hallucinations. Auditory hallucinations are susceptible to people with schizophrenia (commonly called "crazy").
But sometimes, this can also be caused by other mental disorders, including
- Bipolar disorder
- Borderline personality disorder
- Severe depression
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Schizoaffective disorder
2. You consume alcohol and illegal drugs
Liquors and drugs such as methamphetamine, ecstasy and others, often cause users to see and hear something that really isn't there. Usually this happens when a person has been heavily addicted to alcohol or illegal drugs or is currently in danger.
3. Alzheimer's disease and brain tumors
Brain degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, dementia, Parkonsin and other types of senile illnesses, are susceptible to making sufferers hallucinate to hear something. For some people, these sounds even sound very real and can be followed by a convincing visual picture.
In addition, auditory hallucinations can also be experienced by people who have brain tumors. Especially if the tumor is in the part of the brain associated with the sense of hearing.
4. hearing loss
People with hearing loss in one or both ears may hear something from strange sounds to music and sound, nothing really is there.
5. Migraine
Often, if you have a migraine you feel dizzy, hear voices, or see things that really don't exist. This is vulnerable to experience, especially if you also experience depression
6. Side effects of medication
If you experience auditory hallucinations, try checking whether you are taking certain drugs or not. If you have just taken the drug, ask your doctor if the dose given is higher or not, because this can lead to sound hallucinations in yourself.
7. Other causes
Some other things that can cause you to hear something that isn't real, including:
- Lack of sleep, for example staying up for days
- High fever causes delirium, a condition that decreases the ability to focus attention so you become dazed, disorientated, and unable to think clearly.
- End-stage diseases such as cancer, AIDS, or kidney and liver failure.
- Hearing and visual sensory defects
- Epilepsy
- Social isolation, especially in the elderly
How do doctors diagnose hallucinations?
Generally the doctor will ask a number of things, including what sounds are heard, whether you are consuming something, etc. After that, you will get several tests based on what the doctor thinks might be the cause.
For example, you might need to see a psychiatrist to check if you have a mental disorder. Or you might need to undergo an electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure electrical signals in your brain, to determine whether your auditory hallucinations are caused by epilepsy. You also need to do an overall hearing check to check for hearing loss or tinnitus.
How to treat it?
Hallucinations are generally treated with drugs that slow down the brain's work. But handling hallucinations must also take into account the factors that cause it to reduce the severity of hallucinations.
If hallucinations occur due to side effects of the drug, the doctor may reduce the dose or replace the medication you are taking. In others, treatment is more complex and you may need to try several things to see what works. For example, if you are diagnosed with a disease such as schizophrenia, you may need a combination of medication, therapy, and other treatments.
