The correct way to treat auditory hallucinations
When a person hears( or thinks he hears) sounds or voices that are not a reflection of changes in the real world, they say that he has auditory hallucinations. In the overwhelming majority of cases, when auditory hallucinations appear, a person immediately needs medical help - the causes of these phenomena are painful changes in the psyche.
How do auditory hallucinations appear?
It is unequivocal to answer the question whether or not the voice arising in the head, auditory hallucination, can only be a qualified psychiatrist who will assess not only this symptom, but also other painful changes in the human psyche. In the case when a person who is completely healthy before, in the process of active reflection begins to listen to his own inner voice, then this phenomenon can not be called a hallucination.
The patient not only hears, but also understands that the real object, this voice is not published - he is critical of his own state. To say that auditory hallucinations appeared, at the first approximation it is possible only at the moment when there is no criticism of one's own feelings - it seems that the voice has a real origin, but this is not confirmed.
If a person has painful sensations, auditory hallucinations - the causes of their appearance are hidden in severe disorders of the psyche or neurological pathology. Such symptoms should not be taken lightly: a competent and comprehensive comprehensive examination will help to make an accurate diagnosis, and after that the doctor may prescribe medications for hallucinations or prescribe the treatment of the underlying disease( vascular pathology, neoplasm of the brain).
Most often, auditory hallucinations become one of the first manifestations of schizophrenia - some psychiatrists believe that these symptoms are human thoughts that have a verbal form, and painful changes in the psyche affect not the emergence of this phenomenon, but a critical attitude toward it. The sick person, who suffers from mental illness, ceases to critically evaluate his condition - auditory and visual hallucinations seem to the patient to be quite real events.
A person with mental disorders considers it necessary to fulfill all the recommendations voiced by the voices, not realizing their origin. For him, such voices become a reality that controls his life precisely under the influence of voices( auditory hallucinations) a person begins to pose a danger to others and himself.
Auditory hallucinations in elderly patients occur most often on the background of vascular diseases of the brain or as a result of the effects of drugs that they are assigned to treat somatic diseases. The proof of this is the fact that with the return the probability of development of auditory hallucinations in elderly patients is progressively increasing.
It should also be remembered that in age patients auditory hallucinations can develop against a background of somatogenic depressions, mania, Alzheimer's disease. It is possible to diagnose elderly patients only after a person is examined not only by a psychiatrist, but also by a surdologist - often enough the auditory hallucinations in a person who does not hear well are caused by improper selection of the hearing aid or the use of a poor quality device, and in this case a psychiatricthe disease can not be said.
How to treat the disease
Only a qualified and experienced specialist can diagnose and prescribe the treatment, which in the complex analyzes the changes taking place with the patient. To auditory hallucinations, doctors do not include temporary, passing phenomena that may appear in a person before going to bed or developing depressive, but amenable to correction states.
- If a person has auditory hallucinations - treatment is prescribed not only by psychiatrists, but also by a therapist who is observed by a person constantly. Its task should be to analyze previously prescribed medications and identify( with subsequent replacement) those tools that can potentially cause auditory hallucinations.
- If a person uses a hearing aid, then he should be advised by a doctor-sudrologist - often after a replacement of a poor-quality apparatus auditory hallucinations disappear.
- In case of ineffectiveness of all listed methods or detection of symptoms of mental disorders, the patient is treated by a psychiatrist who selects a combination of psychotropic drugs or antidepressants effective for each patient.