Hallucinations in the general population are significantly linked to mental health disorders, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts across the lifespan, new research shows.
An analysis of a large survey of more than 33,000 participants showed that although the prevalence of hallucinations decreased markedly with age, individuals who reported hallucinations were at least twice as likely to have at least one mental disorder than their counterparts without hallucinations.
They were also more than twice as likely to report suicidal ideation and suicide attempt across the lifespan, although, again, the rate of both outcomes decreased with age.
A possible reason for the decreasing rate could be that "maladaptive coping skills and high levels of emotional dysregulation increase the risk of hallucinations, [but] these are skills that are known to improve as adults age," study investigator Kathryn Yates, PhD student, Department of Psychiatry, Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, Ireland, noted.
Still, Yates believes the findings highlight the "important life course and developmental features of hallucinations from early adulthood to old age."
"If an individual comes into the clinic and they're 19 and they report past-year hallucinations but there's also someone in the waiting room aged 74 who reports past-year hallucinations, which individual are you going to be more concerned about in terms of psychopathology?" she asked.
