Symptom: Hallucinations

Introduction: Hallucinations

Hallucinations can arise from a high fever or other illness involving a fever. These type of febrile hallucinations arise particularly in children and the elderly.

Hallucinations can affect any of the senses: visual hallucinations (seeing things), aural hallucinations (hearing noises or voices), taste hallucinations, or sensory hallucinations.

Chronic cases of hallucinations and delusions typify psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and other delusional disorders. Delusions differ from hallucinations in that delusions refer to the mind's reasoning and thoughts, rather than its sensory inputs.

It is important to be precise about this symptom, and to dinstinguish true hallucinations from other symptoms such as nightmares, vision changes, delirium, dementia, aura (e.g. the "aura" before a migraine or faint), and delusions.

» Review Causes of Hallucinations: full list

Causes of Hallucinations:

The following medical conditions are some of the possible causes of Hallucinations. There are likely to be other possible causes, so ask your doctor about your symptoms.

• Some of the more common possible causes of hallucinations include:
  • High fever - A high fever, especially in children, can evoke hallucinations, consciousness changes, or dream-like states that resemble hallucinogenic states. Requires urgent medical attention.
  • Drug intoxication
  • LSD intoxication
  • Marijuana intoxication
  • Cannabis
  • Psychotic disorder - see below.
• Psychotic disorders - these are typified by hallucinations and/or delusions.
  • Schizophrenia
  • Schizotypal personality disorder
  • Schizoid personality disorder
  • Brief psychotic disorder
  • Bipolar disorder - previously known as "manic-depressive disorder"
  • Mania - if causing psychosis
  • Drug-induced psychoses
• Some of the less common possible causes of hallucinations include:
  • Grief - will rarely cause hallucinations in very severe grief.
  • Postpartum psychosis
  • Korsakoff's psychosis
  • Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder - causing flashbacks after use of hallucinogen drugs.
• Alcohol abuse
  • Alcohol poisoning
  • Delirium tremens
  • Alcoholic hallucinosis (see Alcohol abuse)
• Physical medical conditions that may lead to hallucinations include:
  • Extreme physical stress
  • High fever
  • Dehydration
  • Extreme fatigue
  • Kidney failure

See full list of 149 causes of Hallucinations

» Review Causes of Hallucinations: full list

Causes of Types of Hallucinations:

Review the causes of these more specific types of Hallucinations:

• Auditory hallucinations (15 causes)
• Hearing voices (7 causes)

More types of Hallucinations

Hallucinations: Multiple Symptom Checker

Listed below are some combinations of symptoms associated with Hallucinations, as listed in our database. Visit the Multiple Symptoms Checker, to add and remove symptoms and research your condition.

Multiple Symptom Checker - Other Symptoms

• Hallucinations: Multiple Symptom Checker

Multiple Symptom Checker Combinations

• Hallucinations and Behavioral symptoms (100 causes)
• Hallucinations and Mental problems (97 causes)
• Hallucinations and Personality symptoms (96 causes)
• Hallucinations and Muscle symptoms (69 causes)
• Hallucinations and Emotional symptoms (68 causes)
• Hallucinations and Society problems (66 causes)
• Hallucinations and Nerve symptoms (64 causes)
• Hallucinations and Movement symptoms (63 causes)
• Hallucinations and Seizures (63 causes)
• Hallucinations and Head symptoms (61 causes)
• Hallucinations and Pain (60 causes)
• Hallucinations and Sensations (60 causes)
• Hallucinations and Confusion (57 causes)
• Hallucinations and Spasms (56 causes)
• Hallucinations and Digestive symptoms (55 causes)
• Hallucinations and Muscle spasms (51 causes)
• Hallucinations and Muscle weakness (50 causes)
• Hallucinations and Delusions (46 causes)
• Hallucinations and Fatigue (43 causes)
• Hallucinations and Headache (43 causes)

See full list of 1129 Multiple Symptom Checker combinations related to Hallucinations

Home Diagnostic Testing and Hallucinations

Home medical tests possibly related to Hallucinations:

• Mental Health: Home Testing:
  • Home Emotional Stress Tests

Causes of General Symptom Types

Research the causes of these more general types of symptom:

• Mental problems (1944 causes)
• Behavioral symptoms (2767 causes)
• Personality symptoms (2477 causes)

Causes of Similar Symptoms to Hallucinations

Research the causes of these symptoms that are similar to, or related to, the symptom Hallucinations:

• Paranoia (31 causes)
• Delusions (81 causes)

Diagnostic Guides for Hallucinations

Medical Books Excerpts Read excerpts from published book sections related to Hallucinations from the following published medical books for more detailed information about Hallucinations. Free access (no registration): read all online diagnostic book sections about Hallucinations

Copyright notice for book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

Misdiagnosis and Hallucinations

Various mental health symptoms caused by rare epilepsy: Temporal lobe epilepsy is a less common form of epilepsy that does not have the typical physical seizures. Patients...read more »

Lupus is often misdiagnosed as other conditions: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), often simply called "lupus", is a difficult disease to diagnose and can...read more »

Undiagnosed stroke leads to misdiagnosed aphasia: BBC News UK reported on a man who had been institutionalized and treated for mental illness because he suffered from sudden inability to speak. This was initially misdiagnosed as a "nervous...read more »

Dementia may be a drug interaction: A common scenario in aged care is for a patient to show mental decline to dementia. Whereas this can, of course, occur...read more »

ADHD under-diagnosed in adults: Although the over-diagnoses of ADHD in children is a well-known controversy, the reverse side related to adults....read more »

Bipolar disorder misdiagosed as various conditions by primary physicians: Bipolar disorder (manic-depressive disorder) often fails to be diagnosed correctly by primary care...read more »

Eating disorders under-diagnosed in men: The typical patient with an eating disorder is female. The result is that men with eating disorders often fail to be diagnosed or have a delayed diagnosis. See misdiagnosis of eating disorders or symptoms of eating disorders...read more »

Depression undiagnosed in teenagers: Serious bouts of depression can be undiagnosed in teenagers. The "normal" moodiness of teenagers can cause severe medical depression to be overlooked. See misdiagnosis of depression or symptoms of depression....read more »

Undiagnosed anxiety disorders related to depression: Patients with depression (see symptoms of depression) may also have undiagnosed anxiety disorders (see symptoms of anxiety...read more »

Read more about Misdiagnosis and Hallucinations

Diagnostic tests for Hallucinations:

Various tests are used in the diagnosis of Hallucinations. Some of these are listed below :

• Mental state examination - including appearance, behavior, rate and continuity of speech, mood, affect, thought content, evidence of any hallucinations or abnormal beliefs, orientation to time, place and person, attention and concentration, short-term memory, insight and judgement.
• Physical examination
  • Does the person smell of alcohol
  • Temperature
  • Neck stiffness may suggest meningitis or subarachnoid hemorrhage

See full list of 26 diagnostic tests for Hallucinations

Diagnosis Checklist: Questions your doctor may ask (and why!)

During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques in their assessment of Hallucinations. Your doctor may ask several questions when assessing your condition. It is important to remember that your consultation is a two-way process and any extra information you can share with your doctor about your symptoms may help them with their diagnosis. Some of the questions your doctor may ask are listed below:

• How long have you noticed the hallucinations? - to determine if acute or chronic.
• If acute in nature must consider delirium or a new onset of psychiatric illness as a possible cause of hallucinations - Delirium is an acute confusional state due to many causes e.g. infection, drug intoxication, alcohol withdrawal, liver failure, kidney failure, hypoxia (reduced oxygen levels in the blood), low blood sugar, stroke, heart attack or head injury. If the onset is chronic a diagnosis of psychiatric illness or dementia may be more likely.
• Are the hallucinations visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), tactile (touch) or olfactory (smell) or gustatory (taste)?
• Are the hallucinations primarily visual in nature? - this would suggest an organic cause such as delirium, epilepsy or brain tumor.
• Are the hallucinations primarily auditory in nature? - this is the type of hallucination most commonly associated with schizophrenia but may be associated with bipolar affective disorder, dementia or delirium, and their content tends to be related to the nature of the disorder.

See Diagnosis Checklist for Hallucinations (21 listings)

Diagnosis Checklist: Associated symptoms your doctor may ask about (and why!)

Sometimes, other symptoms may be present and may help your doctor analyse your condition. The symptoms your doctor may ask about (in association with Hallucinations) may include:

• Paranoid thoughts? - may be present in schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, psychotic depression, paranoid delusional disorder, paranoid personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, brain damage, abuse of stimulant of hallucinogenic drugs, dementia and cultural isolation.
• Symptoms of dementia? - e.g. impaired memory, impaired judgement and thinking, impaired verbal fluency and impaired ability to perform complex tasks. Personality may change, impulse control may be lost and personal care deteriorates. People with dementia may also have psychiatric symptoms such as delusions, paranoid ideas, hallucinations, mood disturbance and behavioral disturbance.
• Symptoms of delirium? - e.g. impaired conscious level with onset over hours or days, disorientation in time and/or place, unusually quite, drowsy, agitated, delusions, auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations.
• Fever? - can suggest any infection that may cause delirium or meningitis, encephalitis, brain abscess or brain hemorrhage.
• Psychotic symptoms? - e.g. delusions, hallucinations and disordered thinking - may suggest schizophrenia or bipolar disorder but these symptoms may also be present with delirium, dementia and severe depression.

See Diagnosis Checklist for Hallucinations (21 listings)

Stories from Users for Hallucinations

Real-life user stories relating to Hallucinations:

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• Smelling things that arent there?

Symptom specific forums: The following patient stories in our interactive forums and message boards relate to Hallucinations or relevant symptoms:

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Videos for Hallucinations

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Causes of Hallucinations listed in Disease Database:

Other medical conditions listed in the Disease Database as possible causes of Hallucinations as a symptom include:

• Amphetamine
• Bipolar affective disorder
• Brain failure
• Ethanol
• Memantine
• Mescaline
• Narcolepsy
• Psilocybine
• Puerperal psychosis

See full list of 149 causes of Hallucinations
- (Source - Diseases Database)

Medications or substances causing Hallucinations:

The following drugs, medications, substances or toxins are some of the possible causes of Hallucinations as a symptom. Always advise your doctor of any medications or treatments you are using, including prescription, over-the-counter, supplements, herbal or alternative treatments.

• Certain illicit drugs
  • Marijuana
  • Cannabis
  • LSD
  • Amphetamines

See full list of 625 medications causing Hallucinations

Drug interactions causing Hallucinations:

When combined, certain drugs, medications, substances or toxins may react causing Hallucinations as a symptom. Always advise your doctor of any medications or treatments you are using, including prescription, over-the-counter, supplements, herbal or alternative treatments.

• Parnate and tranylcypromine sulfate interaction
• Prozac and Dextromethorphan interaction
• Prozac Weekly and Dextromethorphan interaction
• Sarafem and Dextromethorphan interaction
• Tagamet (Cimetidine) and Adapin (Doxepin) interaction

See full list of 229 drug interactions causing Hallucinations

Definitions of Hallucinations:

A hallucination is a false sensory perception in the absence of an external stimulus, as distinct from an illusion which is a misperception of an external stimulus. (from Wikipedia)
- (Source - Diseases Database)

Organs affected by Hallucinations:

The list of organs typically affected by Hallucinations may include, but is not limited to:

• Brain

Detailed list of causes of Hallucinations

The list below shows some of the causes of Hallucinations mentioned in various sources:

• Acanthamoeba infection - hallucinations
• Acanthamoeba infection of the central nervous system - hallucinations
• Acid-Base Imbalance - hallucinations
• Acute intermittent porphyria - hallucination
• Adrenal adenoma, familial - hallucinations

See full list of 149 causes of Hallucinations

How Common are these Causes of Hallucinations?

This information refers to the general prevalence and incidence of these diseases, not to how likely they are to be the actual cause of Hallucinations. Of the 149 causes of Hallucinations that we have listed, we have the following prevalence/incidence information:

• 4 causes are "very common" diseases
• 9 causes are "common" diseases
• 4 causes are "uncommon" diseases
• 2 causes are "rare" diseases
• 3 causes are "very rare" diseases
• 140 causes have no prevalence information.

See the analysis of the prevalence of 149 causes of Hallucinations

Conditions listing symptoms: Hallucinations:

The following list of conditions have 'Hallucinations' or similar listed as a symptom in our database. This computer-generated list may be inaccurate or incomplete. Always seek prompt professional medical advice about the cause of any symptom.

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Causes of Hallucinations Based on Risk Factors

This information shows analysis of the list of causes of Hallucinations based on whether certain risk factors apply to the patient: