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. 2021 Apr 16;18(8):4237.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18084237.

Prevalence of Hallucinations in the General Croatian Population

Jelinčić Ivana  1   2 , Degmečić Dunja  2   3
Affiliations

Prevalence of Hallucinations in the General Croatian Population

Jelinčić Ivana et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Hallucinations involve sensing things such as visions, sounds, or smells that seem real but are not. These things are created by the mind. However, little is known about the distribution of incident hallucinations in the community. This paper aims to examine manifestation and frequency of the hallucinatory experiences within the general Croatian population.

Methods: The instrument of the survey is Chicago Hallucination Assessment Tool (CHAT). The study included 521 examinees; 284 females (54.5%) and males 237 (45.5%).

Results: There was a manifestation of all types of hallucinatory experiences determined. Out of all of the participants 17% listed that they experienced acoustic hallucinations during their lifetime, 15% said that they have experienced visual hallucinations, 12% olfactory hallucinations, 10% gustatory and 12% tactile/cenesthetic hallucinations.

Conclusion: The results of this research have indicated that simple hallucinations were mostly represented among the general Croatian population and those more complex were represented less which is a positive thing because of its prominent clinical significance. The contribution of this study is the possibility of comparisons with studies from different regions of Europe and the world. This is another component in a better understanding of the incidence of hallucinations in the general population. The data we have obtained puts us on the map of countries trying to raise awareness of a topic that needs to acquire more attention.

Keywords: epidemiology; general population; hallucinations; prevalence.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors have no conflict of interest to report.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Frequency of individual hallucinations according to whether they are simple (A) or complex (B), or according to the impression: subjective (C) or external (D) (° = outliers).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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