Multimodal Hallucinations in Psychosis V1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Experiencing Multimodal Hallucinations in Psychosis: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
IRAS ID
317654
Contact name
Erin Richmond
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 10 months, 0 days
Research summary
Psychosis is a term that represents a group of mental health conditions with core features that include hallucinations e.g., hearing or seeing things with no corresponding stimulation from the environment. For example, an individual with psychosis may ‘see’ a dark figure in the corner, however no one else can see that figure. However, research in clinical practice suggests that it is common for people with psychosis to experience hallucinations in more than one sense at the same time that may or may not be related to each other. They may also occur at different times but are related in some form. This is described as a multimodal hallucination (MMH).
Experiencing things that are not there can be very distressing, especially if what is being experienced makes them feel unsafe. It has been suggested that there is a relationship between increasing numbers of sensory hallucinations and the amount of distress experienced. For example, experiencing a visual hallucination may be more distressing if what is seen also talks to you. The focus of existing research has been looking at how people understand hallucinations in solely one modality such as voice hearing. At present, we have significant lack of information on MMH. This emerging evidence base has started to develop using questionnaires, with findings showing that when people do experience MMH, they are often more unwell, need longer treatments and more hospital admissions.
This study will be one of the first to interview people and ask about their experiences of MMH: what people see, how they make sense of the MMH, the distress and impact of MMH, and if they would like a treatment directed towards MMH. There is set of structured questions to outline the interviews, however the prompts used will be guided by the what the individual brings to the interview.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/YH/0238
Date of REC Opinion
19 Oct 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion