Background: Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) is defined by repetitive experiences of visual hallucinations. This classically affects the elderly with visual impairment, intact cognition and the absence of psychiatric illness. Hallucinations remain indefinitely and can be static, dynamic, elementary or complex, colored or in black and white, centrally or peripherally. Objectives: To analyze the scientific information available on the clinical aspects of CBS. Methods: A bibliographic review was carried out in the PubMed database, in the last 10 years, using the descriptors “Charles Bonnet Syndrome”, “Hallucinations” and “Prognosis”, associated with the Boolean operator “AND’’. English and Portuguese were included, inconclusive studies were excluded, with biases or duplicates, whose approaches did not indicate an outcome in the syndrome, selecting 12 articles. Results: It was observed that there is no consensus on the pathophysiology and age range of CBS involvement, which varies between 70 and 80. The incidence is up to 1.4%. As for the prognosis, one of the articles pointed to the presence of hallucinations between 7 and 18 months, these varying in complexity, frequency and impact on patients’ lives. Diagnosis is made by exclusion, emphasizing the benign character, assertive diagnosis and effective treatment are essential factors for the mild evolution of the disorder. Conclusion: As it is considered a rare disease, it is rarely addressed in the literature and, therefore, new studies are desirable, in order to demystify the condition and ensure an appropriate approach to patients.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.