Hearing music inside our heads is frequent, however some hear it more vividly, constantly and involuntarily. Musical Hallucinations (MH), first described by Baillarger in 1846, are a complex type of auditory hallucination characterized by perception of melodies, music, or songs.

This work aims to review the literature considering MH.

Pubmed and Google Scholar search using MeSH term “musical hallucinations”

MH occurs in 0.16% of the population. They´re usually perceived as frightening or annoying. Proposed mechanisms include spontaneous activity triggered by sensory deprivation from hearing impairment, like in visual hallucinations in Charles Bonnet syndrome, and some authors even include MH as a subtype of this syndrome. Indeed, 60% of all patients with MH have hearing impairment or deafness. Other less frequent causes include focal brain lesions involving the auditory pathway and cortex, temporal epilepsy, metabolic or drug intoxication. Psychiatric conditions are uncommon but not impossible, especially in affective disorders. MH most frequently consist in familiar tunes, sometimes of personal significance, religious songs (especially in older patients), childhood songs, folk and popular songs from the radio - suggesting that musical perception is never unlearned but represents a “parasitic memory”, an unchangeable memory feature which can be experienced by relevant neuronal circuit stimulation. Most patients with MH were reported to have no extraordinary musical skills.

MH are rare and strongly associated with hearing loss, though investigation of other causes should be sought. Treating the underlying cause is important but remission is not guaranteed.

No significant relationships.

The prevalence of substance use disorder has rapidly increased recently. It is believed that the occurrence of mental disorders is strongly associated with substance use.

To identify prevelance of different psychiatric mobidity & symptomatology as Comorbidity amon the diagnosed patients of Substance Use Disorder

This study was conducted from June till December 2021. A total of 486 PDUs were recruited for this study. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed among PDUs admitted at the Rehabilitation Centre during the period of the study. The questionnaire inquired about the demographic details of the PDUs, their substance history and the occurrence of any MDs.

The mean age of the PDUs was 25.9 + 6.0 years. A total of (95%) men and (5%) women reported their gender. There were single (74.7%), married (23.1%), divorced (1.4%) and separated (0.7%) PDUs. A large majority of the PDUs (n = 159, 55.6%) had been using different drugs for more than three years. The various MDs reported among the PDUs were delusion (n = 100, 35.2%); paranoia (n = 51, 17.8%); mania (n = 36, 12.6%); depression (n = 156, 54.5%); (n = 100, 35.2%); auditory hallucinations (n = 73, 25.7%); visual hallucinations (n = 106, 37.3%) and anxiety (n = 46, 16.2%). Among 164 cannabis users, hallucinations (n = 35, 21.3%; p = 0.04) was the only significant MD.

Delusion and paranoia were amongst the most highly prevalent MDs reported. The occurrence of auditory hallucinations, mania and paranoia were significantly associated with cannabis, heroin and cocaine use, respectively.

No significant relationships.

One of the most perplexing and characteristic symptoms of the schizophrenia (SZ) patients is hallucination. The occurrence of hallucinations to be associated with altered activity in the auditory and visual cortex but is not well understood from the brain functional network dynamics in SZ.

To explore the brain abnormal basis of hallucinations in SZ with the dynamic functional connectivity (dFC).

Using magnetic resonance imaging for 83 SZ patients and 83 matched healthy controls and independent component analysis, 52 independent components (ICs) were identified as nodes and assigned into eight intrinsic connectivity networks (Figure 1A). Subsequently, we established dFC matrices and clustered them into four discrete states (Figure 1B) and three state transition metrics were obtained. To further explore the changes in the centrality of each component, eigenvector centrality (EC) was calculated and its time-varying was evaluated.

Compared to controls with FDR correction, we found that patients had more mean dwell times and fractional time in state 1 (P=0.0081 and P=0.0018), mainly with hypoconnectivity between auditory and visual network and other networks and hyperconnectivity between language and default-mode network (DMN). While, patients had less dwell times and fractional time in state 3 (P=0.0018 and P=0.0009), and decreased FC between visual network and executive control network (ECN) and increased FC between ECN and DMN than controls (Figure 2).

EC statistics showed that SZs displayed increased temporal dynamics in visual-related regions (Figure 3).

SZ was mainly manifested as altered dFC and temporal variability of nodal centrality in auditory and visual networks.

No significant relationships.

Faced with recent onset psychotic symptoms in patients over 60 years of age without a psychiatric history, it is important to carry out an adequate differential diagnosis.

The objective is to carry out a review of Charles Bonnet syndrome through the presentation of a case

75-year-old patient who suddenly began to present auditory hallucinations. The patient had no relevant psychiatric history or medical history. She reported that suddenly, two months ago, she had begun to listen to his neighbor through the walls of his home. She heard him talk about her, threatening and insulting her. Later, as a result of these hallucinations, she began to believe that in the bathroom he was spying on her through a camera, forcing her to shower in the dark. Weeks later, she thought that he was also chasing her down the street through a chip that had implanted her. She was distressed and highly anxious. She had started not sleeping out of fear of this neighbor.

In addition to the psychiatric evaluation, an MRI was requested to rule out incipient cognitive deterioration, as well as a hearing examination. It was found that he had severe hearing loss in the left ear. Given these findings, he was diagnosed with Charles Bonnet syndrome.

Charles Bonnet syndrome is normally associated with blindness, however, it is also described in deafness. It occurs with hallucinations of the lost sensory organ. It is a clinical picture that does not respond well to treatments.

No significant relationships.

Most research exploring the link between traumatic events and psychotic experiences has focused on either Australia, Europe or North America. In this study, we expand the existing knowledge to Thailand and investigate the impact of the type and the number of traumatic events on psychotic experiences in Thailand.

We used data from the nationally representative 2013 Thai National Mental Health Survey (TNMHS), including questions on traumatic events and psychotic experiences. We regressed the lifetime experience of hallucinations or delusions against the following independent variables: the experience of any traumatic event during lifetime (dichotomous; hypothesis 1); the experience of either no traumatic event, one interpersonal, one unintentional or both interpersonal and unintentional traumatic events (categorical; hypothesis 2) and the number of traumatic events experienced during lifetime (categorical; hypothesis 3). We adjusted the regression models for sociodemographic indicators and psychiatric disorders, and considered survey weights.

About 6% (95% confidence interval: 4.9–7.0) of the respondents stated that they had either hallucinatory or delusional experiences during their lifetime. The risk of reporting such experiences was more than doubled as high among respondents who had experienced at least one traumatic event during their lifetime than among those who had not yet experienced one, with higher risks for interpersonal or multiple traumatic events. Our results further indicated an increase in the risk of psychotic experiences as the number of traumatic events increased, with up to an eight-fold higher risk for people exposed to five or more traumatic events in their lifetime, compared to those with no traumatic events.

Individuals reporting interpersonal or multiple traumatic events face much higher risk of psychotic experiences. Effective and widely accessible secondary prevention programmes for people having experienced interpersonal or multiple traumatic events constitute a key intervention option.

The relationship between the subtypes of psychotic experiences (PEs) and common mental health symptoms remains unclear. The current study aims to establish the 12-month prevalence of PEs in a representative sample of community-dwelling Chinese population in Hong Kong and explore the relationship of types of PEs and common mental health symptoms.

This is a population-based two-phase household survey of Chinese population in Hong Kong aged 16–75 (N = 5719) conducted between 2010 and 2013 and a 2-year follow-up study of PEs positive subjects (N = 152). PEs were measured with Psychosis Screening Questionnaire (PSQ) and subjects who endorsed any item on the PSQ without a clinical diagnosis of psychotic disorder were considered as PE-positive. Types of PEs were characterized using a number of PEs (single v. multiple) and latent class analysis. All PE-positive subjects were assessed with common mental health symptoms and suicidal ideations at baseline and 2-year follow-up. PE status was also assessed at 2-year follow-up.

The 12-month prevalence of PEs in Hong Kong was 2.7% with 21.1% had multiple PEs. Three latent classes of PEs were identified: hallucination, paranoia and mixed. Multiple PEs and hallucination latent class of PEs were associated with higher levels of common mental health symptoms. PE persistent rate at 2-year follow-up was 15.1%. Multiple PEs was associated with poorer mental health at 2-year follow-up.

Results highlighted the transient and heterogeneous nature of PEs, and that multiple PEs and hallucination subtype of PEs may be specific indices of poorer common mental health.

La prévalence des hallucinations chez les enfants et les adolescents est de 4,9 % à 9 % [1]. Il s’agit d’un symptôme polysémique dont le repérage précoce reste un enjeu majeur du fait du risque évolutif vers un trouble psychotique cependant rare.

Nous rapportons deux cas d’hallucinations auditives et cénesthésiques. Dans le premier cas, une adolescente de 13 ans présentait un syndrome de stress post-traumatique suite à une agression. Les hallucinations survenaient lorsqu’elle était seule dans la rue. L’approche systémique du symptôme mettait à jour un mythe familial de menace. En effet, l’agression renforçait un sentiment ancien de persécution par la société, notamment concernant ses parents handicapés par une surdité congénitale. Dans le second cas, un enfant de 9 ans présentait des hallucinations auditives se manifestant par une mélodie agréable et s’inscrivant dans un contexte de violents conflits entre sa mère et son beau-père. Contemporain d’un repli sur soi et de mouvements anxieux et tristes, ce symptôme semblait également traduire une souffrance familiale.

Concomitamment à l’amendement des hallucinations, la mise en perspective relationnelle du symptôme a permis de retrouver une vitalité du lien. En effet, par ce premier lien de vulnérabilité établi avec les soignants, les familles ont retrouvé confiance dans leur capacité à s’ouvrir au monde extérieur offrant ainsi une opportunité pour le changement.

Une vision intégrative tenant compte non seulement des avancées de l’imagerie et des nombreux modèles neurobiologiques et neurocognitifs [2,3], mais aussi du contexte relationnel du patient, semble fondamentale à la prise en charge globale des hallucinations de l’enfant et de l’adolescent.

Estimation of prevalence rates of sub-clinical psychosis symptoms can vary considerably depending on the methodology used. Furthermore, discussions are ongoing how prevalence rates may differ across various syndromes.

We analyzed data from the prospective Zurich Study, assessing sub-clinical psychosis with a semi-structured clinical interview in a community cohort of 50 years old individuals. The higher-order factors of psychosis symptoms were analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis to validate the a priori specified symptom-structure. Further associations were examined with contingency tables and logistic regressions.

The confirmatory factor analysis was consistent with a structure with four higher-order syndromes. Those different syndromes were labeled “thought disorder” (lifetime prevalence = 10.6%), “ego disorder” (4.8%), “hallucination” (9.7%), and “schizotypy” (28.2%). A strong discrepancy was noted between the 12-month prevalence of any symptoms and those considered to be severe. Twelve-month prevalence rates of distressful syndromes ranged from 0.1% for hallucinations up to 6.6% for schizotypy. The most strongly interrelated syndromes were thought disorder and ego disorder (OR = 12.4).

Our findings indicate a continuity of sub-clinical psychosis within the general population even though only a small proportion suffers from distressing symptoms. Our analyses showed that the syndromes identified here are similar to those found in full-blown schizophrenia, albeit in an attenuated form.

Perceived discrimination has been linked to psychotic experiences (PEs). However, as yet, information is lacking on the relationship between different forms of discrimination and PEs. This study examined this association in the English general population.

Nationally representative, cross-sectional data were analyzed from 7363 adults aged 16 and above that came from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, 2007. Self-reported information was obtained on six forms of discrimination (ethnicity, sex, religious beliefs, age, physical health problems/disability, sexual orientation), while PEs were assessed with the Psychosis Screening Questionnaire (PSQ). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to assess associations.

In a fully adjusted logistic regression analysis, any discrimination was significantly associated with PEs (odds ratio [OR]: 2.47, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.75–3.48). All individual forms of discrimination were significantly associated with PEs except sexual orientation. Multiple forms of discrimination were associated with higher odds for PEs in a monotonic fashion with those experiencing ≥ 3 forms of discrimination having over 5 times higher odds for any PE. In addition, experiencing any discrimination was associated with significantly increased odds for all individual forms of PE with ORs ranging from 2.16 (95%CI: 1.40–3.35) for strange experience to 3.36 (95%CI: 1.47–7.76) for auditory hallucination.

Different forms of discrimination are associated with PEs in the general population. As discrimination is common at the societal level, this highlights the importance of public policy and evidence-based interventions to reduce discrimination and improve population mental health.