Observations placeholder
Auditory hallucinations and acute stroke
Identifier
012627
Type of Spiritual Experience
Ecstasy
Inter composer communication
Perception recall
Hallucination
Background
An interesting aside to this observation is that the researchers “Excluded patients taking recreational drugs or alcohol abuse patients, as well as those taking medications which had been proven to evoke hallucinations, including beta blockers or antihypertensive medications [sic]."
The last sentence is agonisingly brief. From this brief description we don't know if what was said was new or not, so we don't know the source - it could have been perception recall or communication with their Higher spirit
A description of the experience
Auditory hallucinations in acute stroke Yair Lampla,∗, Mordechai Lorberboymb, Ronit Gilada, Mona Boazc and Menachem Sadeha
aDepartment of Neurology, Edith Wolfson Medical Center, Holon, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel
bDepartment of Nuclear Medicine, Edith Wolfson Medical Center, Holon, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel
cEpidemiology Unit and the Institute for Cardiovascular Research, Edith Wolfson Medical Center, Holon, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Auditory hallucinations are uncommon phenomena which can be directly caused by acute stroke, mostly described after lesions of the brain stem, very rarely reported after cortical strokes.
The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency of this phenomenon.
In a cross sectional study, 641 stroke patients were followed in the period between 1996–2000. Each patient underwent comprehensive investigation and follow-up.
Four patients were found to have post cortical stroke auditory hallucinations. All of them occurred after an ischemic lesion of the right temporal lobe. After no more than four months, all patients were symptom-free and without therapy. The fact the auditory hallucinations may be of cortical origin must be taken into consideration in the treatment of stroke patients. The phenomenon may be completely reversible after a couple of months.
Results: 521 patients (340 male and 181 female) were primary included in the study. All were interviewed for having hallucinations. 16 (3%) patients had at least one kind of hallucinations (visual, auditory or tactile). Of these, 4 (2 male and 2 female) had auditory hallucinations.
All cases of hallucinations occurred after cortical stroke. No patient demonstrated post stroke hallucinations after an infarction of the brain stem or subcortical structures. In all four patients with auditory hallucinations, the hallucinations had the same characteristics which consisted of two main features:
(1) hearing familiar persons, mostly family members speaking to the patients or between themselves or
(2) hearing themselves in their own voice speaking.