Exploratory survey digs into the lived experience of “hearing voices”

Science Focus

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Auditory hallucinations—commonly referred to as "voices in your head"—are a common symptom of some mental illnesses. There’s a widely understood and stereotypical picture of what it means to “hear voices,” but many common perceptions about these experiences don’t hit on the truth. Preconceived ideas such as these are an especially important problem in psychiatric research. It’s difficult to figure out why people hear voices if we don’t really understand what these voices are like in the first place.

Hearing the Voice, a research group at Durham University in England, designed an exploratory survey to figure out where current research might be making incorrect assumptions. The group, which is home to a team of cognitive neuroscientists, psychologists, psychiatrists, medical humanities specialists and others, aims to explore the causes and treatment of auditory verbal hallucinations.

They created a survey that was aimed at anyone who reports hearing voices, whether or not they've received a clinical diagnosis. Participants were recruited through clinical networks, support groups, and mental health forums. The results, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, included both statistical analyses and descriptions of participant responses, highlighting some potentially important departures from conventional wisdom, as well as some promising avenues for further research.

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