What type of voices do schizophrenics hear

According to our hypothesis there are epidemiological and clinical differences between the hallucinatory and delusional subgroups of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, paranoid type. Patients in the Hallucinatory subgroup have more severe positive and negative symptoms and greater functional impairment than the patients in the Delusional subgroup. A patient deep in thought might not realize that he is thinking malfunction of thought but is rather "hearing voices" without external stimulus.

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Amy Standen. Aug 11, Rather, the U. The Americans experienced voices as bombardment and as symptoms of a brain disease caused by genes or trauma. Among the Indians in Chennai, more than half 11 heard voices of kin or family members commanding them to do tasks. That contrasts to the Americans, only two of whom heard family members.

Also, the Indians heard fewer threatening voices than the Americans — several heard the voices as playful, as manifesting spirits or magic, and even as entertaining. Finally, not as many of them described the voices in terms of a medical or psychiatric problem, as all of the Americans did. In Accra, Ghana, where the culture accepts that disembodied spirits can talk, few subjects described voices in brain disease terms.

When people talked about their voices, 10 of them called the experience predominantly positive; 16 of them reported hearing God audibly. Why the difference? Luhrmann offered an explanation: Europeans and Americans tend to see themselves as individuals motivated by a sense of self identity, whereas outside the West, people imagine the mind and self interwoven with others and defined through relationships.

As a result, hearing voices in a specific context may differ significantly for the person involved, they wrote. However, in India and Africa, the subjects were not as troubled by the voices — they seemed on one level to make sense in a more relational world. The religiosity or urban nature of the culture did not seem to be a factor in how the voices were viewed, Luhrmann said. The findings may be clinically significant, according to the researchers. Prior research showed that specific therapies may alter what patients hear their voices say.

Co-authors for the article included R. Tanya Luhrmann, Anthropology: or , luhrmann stanford. Parker, Stanford News Service: , cbparker stanford.