Charles Bonnet’s syndrome: not only a condition of the elderly

Purpose To investigate whether the experience of visual hallucinations, namely Charles Bonnet’s syndrome, in psychologically healthy people is a phenomenon solely of elderly, visually impaired people. Methods In a prospective controlled study, four groups of subjects (total 324) were formed: age ≤40...

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Published in:Graefe's archive for clinical and experimental ophthalmology 2016-08, Vol.254 (8), p.1637-1642
Main Authors: Elflein, Heike M., Rudy, M., Lorenz, K., Ponto, K. A., Scheurich, A., Pitz, S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acuity
Adolescent
Adult
Age
Age Distribution
Age Factors
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Blindness
Eye
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Geriatrics
Germany - epidemiology
Hallucinations
Hallucinations - epidemiology
Hallucinations - etiology
Hallucinations - physiopathology
Humans
Low Vision
Male
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Middle Aged
Older people
Ophthalmology
Prevalence
Prospective Studies
Statistical analysis
Syndrome
Vision Disorders - epidemiology
Vision Disorders - etiology
Vision Disorders - physiopathology
Visual Acuity
Visual impairment
Visual Perception - physiology
Visually Impaired Persons - psychology
Young Adult
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Summary:Purpose To investigate whether the experience of visual hallucinations, namely Charles Bonnet’s syndrome, in psychologically healthy people is a phenomenon solely of elderly, visually impaired people. Methods In a prospective controlled study, four groups of subjects (total 324) were formed: age ≤40 years, no visual impairment; age ≤40 years, visually impaired; age >40 years, no visual impairment; age >40 years, visually impaired. Visual impairment was defined as best-corrected visual acuity ≤0.3 (Snellen) in the better-seeing eye. Each group consisted of 81 subjects. Visual hallucinations were defined as complex visual perceptions. After ruling out psychiatric causes for visual hallucinations or medication related to the experience of visual hallucinations, affected subjects underwent a detailed interview about their visual hallucinations. Results The prevalence of visual hallucinations among young subjects with visual impairment was 4.9 %; among the elderly visually impaired subjects, it was 6.2 %. The difference was not statistically significant. No subject without visual impairment experienced visual hallucinations. Conclusions Charles Bonnet’s syndrome is not limited to elderly people suffering from visual impairment, though there tends to be a higher prevalence of visual hallucinations in this group.
ISSN:0721-832X
1435-702X
DOI:10.1007/s00417-016-3387-x