Association between childhood trauma and multimodal early-onset hallucinations

Medjkane, François; Notredame, Charles-Édouard; Sharkey, Lucie; D’Hondt, Fabien; Vaïva, Guillaume; Jardri, Renaud

doi:10.1192/bjp.2019.266

Cited by 20 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…More recently, some incidences of SED have been conceptualized as hallucinations, suggesting a lack of integration of the death (Field & Filanosky, 2010). Research points to a history of trauma as a strong predictor of hallucinations in several contexts, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychosis, as well as in non-clinical populations (Armour, Shevlin, Elklit, & Houston, 2019;Medjkane et al, 2020;Morrison & Petersen, 2003), but, to our knowledge, such a possible link has not been explored in relation to SED. In addition, hallucinations may also be associated with a number of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, among older adults (Badcock, Dehon, & Laroi, 2017;Waters & Fernyhough, 2017), but research exploring whether SED are associated with diagnosed mental health issues is lacking (Castelnovo et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensory experiences of one’s deceased spouse in older adults: An analysis of predisposing factors

Kamp

Steffen

Moskowitz

et al. 2020

Aging & Mental Health

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Objectives: This study focuses on pre-disposing factors associated with sensory experiences of the deceased (SED), also called bereavement hallucinations. Even though SED are common among older widowed adults, our knowledge of these experiences is still limited. Method: Survey responses were obtained from 310 older widowed participants (M ¼ 70.05 ± 8.39), complemented with data from Danish national registers. Results: Hierarchical logistic regression analysis revealed four significant pre-disposing factors: prior experiences of SED in the context of previous significant bereavements (OR ¼ 6.47), a history of interpersonal trauma (OR ¼ 3.22), high pre-death relationship closeness (OR ¼ 2.76) and stronger religious/spiritual worldview (OR ¼ 1.11). No association to registered mental health diagnosis was identified. Conclusion: SED may be considered an interpersonal experience, which may be more likely to occur if the pre-death relationship is described as very close and if the bereaved has previously experienced interpersonal trauma. We argue that SED should not necessarily be considered an indication of neurodegenerative or psychiatric diseases.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensory experiences of one’s deceased spouse in older adults: An analysis of predisposing factors

Kamp

Steffen

Moskowitz

et al. 2020

Aging & Mental Health

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“…ref. 50 ) or the sensory complexity of hallucinations in youth 51 , while higher scores in the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) were found to be correlated with increased resting hippocampal perfusion in individuals at ultrahigh risk for psychosis 52 , a pattern also linked with AH occurrences 13,15 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deviations in early hippocampus development contribute to visual hallucinations in schizophrenia

et al. 2020

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Auditory hallucinations (AHs) are certainly the most emblematic experiences in schizophrenia, but visual hallucinations (VHs) are also commonly observed in this developmental psychiatric disorder. Notably, several studies have suggested a possible relationship between the clinical variability in hallucinations′ phenomenology and differences in brain development/maturation. In schizophrenia, impairments of the hippocampus, a medial temporal structure involved in mnesic and neuroplastic processes, have been repeatedly associated with hallucinations, particularly in the visual modality. However, the possible neurodevelopmental origin of hippocampal impairments in VHs has never been directly investigated. A classic marker of early atypical hippocampal development is incomplete hippocampal inversion (IHI). In this study, we compared IHI patterns in healthy volunteers, and two subgroups of carefully selected schizophrenia patients experiencing frequent hallucinations: (a) those with pure AHs and (b) those with audiovisual hallucinations (A+VH). We found that VHs were associated with a specific IHI pattern. Schizophrenia patients with A +VH exhibited flatter left hippocampi than patients with pure AHs or healthy controls. This result first confirms that the greater clinical impairment observed in A+VH patients may relate to an increased neurodevelopmental weight in this subpopulation. More importantly, these findings bring crucial hints to better specify the sensitivity period of A+VHrelated IHI during early brain development.

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“… 26 This idea of MMHs as a proxy of developmental vulnerability was also confirmed in a case series showing that the number of sensory modalities involved in early-onset hallucinations was related to the probability that a given child ever experienced prior traumatic events. 38 …”

Section: Prevalencementioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Multimodal Hallucinations: Categorization, Assessment, Theoretical Perspectives, and Clinical Recommendations

Montagnese

Leptourgos

Fernyhough

et al. 2020

Schizophrenia Bulletin

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Hallucinations can occur in different sensory modalities, both simultaneously and serially in time. They have typically been studied in clinical populations as phenomena occurring in a single sensory modality. Hallucinatory experiences occurring in multiple sensory systems—multimodal hallucinations (MMHs)—are more prevalent than previously thought and may have greater adverse impact than unimodal ones, but they remain relatively underresearched. Here, we review and discuss: (1) the definition and categorization of both serial and simultaneous MMHs, (2) available assessment tools and how they can be improved, and (3) the explanatory power that current hallucination theories have for MMHs. Overall, we suggest that current models need to be updated or developed to account for MMHs and to inform research into the underlying processes of such hallucinatory phenomena. We make recommendations for future research and for clinical practice, including the need for service user involvement and for better assessment tools that can reliably measure MMHs and distinguish them from other related phenomena.

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Association between childhood trauma and multimodal early-onset hallucinations

Cited by 20 publications

References 10 publications

Sensory experiences of one’s deceased spouse in older adults: An analysis of predisposing factors

Sensory experiences of one’s deceased spouse in older adults: An analysis of predisposing factors

Deviations in early hippocampus development contribute to visual hallucinations in schizophrenia

A Review of Multimodal Hallucinations: Categorization, Assessment, Theoretical Perspectives, and Clinical Recommendations

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