Auditory hallucinations (hearing voices) can affect up to a fifth
of children between the ages of 11 and 13, according to
new research published online today by the
British Journal
of Psychiatry.
For most of these children, the hallucinations
stop as they get older – but those who continue to hear voices may
be at risk of more complex mental illnesses.
The research team, led by Dr Ian Kelleher of
the Department of Psychiatry at the Royal College of Surgeons in
Ireland (RSCI), assessed nearly 2,500 children aged between 11 and
16 years in four separate studies. They found that 21-23% of
younger adolescents (aged 11-13 years) had experienced auditory
hallucinations. Just over half (57%) of the younger adolescents who
heard voices were found to have a psychiatric disorder following
clinical assessment.
In older adolescents (aged 13-16 years), just
7% reported hearing voices. However, nearly 80% of the older
adolescents who heard voices were found to have a psychiatric
disorder – showing a clear association between auditory
hallucinations and serious mental illness.
Lead researcher Dr Ian Kelleher said: “We
found that auditory hallucinations were common even in children as
young as 11 years old. Auditory hallucinations can vary from
hearing an isolated sentence now and then, to hearing
‘conversations’ between two or more people lasting for a several
minutes. It may present like screaming or shouting, and other times
it could sound like whispers or murmurs. It varies greatly from
child to child, and frequency can be once a month to once every
day.
“For many children, these experiences appear
to represent a 'blip' on the radar that does not turn out to
signify any underlying or undiagnosed problem. However, for the
other children, these symptoms turned out to be a warning sign of
serious underlying psychiatric illness, including clinical
depression and behavioural disorders, like attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder. Some older children with auditory
hallucinations had two or more disorders. This finding is important
because if a child reports auditory hallucinations it should prompt
their treating doctor to consider that the child may have more than
one diagnosis.”
Professor Mary Cannon, also of the RSCI’s
Department of Psychiatry, said: “Our study suggests that hearing
voices seems to be more common in children than was previously
thought. In most cases these experiences resolve with time. However
in some children these experiences persist into older adolescence
and this seems to be an indicator that they may have a complex
mental health issue and require more in-depth assessment.”
For further information, please
contact:
Liz Leicester
or Deborah Hart in the Communications
Department.
Telephone: 020 7235 2351 Extensions. 6298 or 6127
References:
Kelleher I, Keeley H, Corcoran P, Lynch F, Fitzpatrick C, Devlin N, Molloy C, Roddy S, Clarke MC, Harley M, Arseneault L, Wasserman C, Carli V, Sarchiopone M, Hoven C, Wasserman D and Canon M. Clinicopathological significance of psychotic symptoms in non-psychotic young people: evidence from four population-based studies. British Journal of Psychiatry, ePub ahead of print 12 April 2012, doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.111.101543