Hearing voices: does it give your patient a headache? A case of auditory hallucinations as acoustic aura in migraine

نویسندگان

  • Christina M van der Feltz-Cornelis
  • Henk Biemans
  • Jan Timmer
چکیده

OBJECTIVE Auditory hallucinations are generally considered to be a psychotic symptom. However, they do occur without other psychotic symptoms in a substantive number of cases in the general population and can cause a lot of individual distress because of the supposed association with schizophrenia. We describe a case of nonpsychotic auditory hallucinations occurring in the context of migraine. METHOD Case report and literature review. RESULTS A 40-year-old man presented with imperative auditory hallucinations that caused depressive and anxiety symptoms. He reported migraine with visual aura as well which started at the same time as the auditory hallucinations. The auditory hallucinations occurred in the context of nocturnal migraine attacks, preceding them as aura. No psychotic disorder was present. After treatment of the migraine with propranolol 40 mg twice daily, explanation of the etiology of the hallucinations, and mirtazapine 45 mg daily, the migraine subsided and no further hallucinations occurred. The patient recovered. DISCUSSION Visual auras have been described in migraine and occur quite often. Auditory hallucinations as aura in migraine have been described in children without psychosis, but this is the first case describing auditory hallucinations without psychosis as aura in migraine in an adult. For description of this kind of hallucination, DSM-IV lacks an appropriate category. CONCLUSION Psychiatrists should consider migraine with acoustic aura as a possible etiological factor in patients without further psychotic symptoms presenting with auditory hallucinations, and they should ask for headache symptoms when they take the history. Prognosis may be favorable if the migraine is properly treated. Research is needed to explore the pathophysiological mechanism of auditory hallucinations as aura in migraine.

برای دانلود رایگان متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Elementary visual hallucinations, blindness, and headache in idiopathic occipital epilepsy: differentiation from migraine.

This is a qualitative and chronological analysis of ictal and postictal symptoms, frequency of seizures, family history, response to treatment, and prognosis in nine patients with idiopathic occipital epilepsy and visual seizures. Ictal elementary visual hallucinations are stereotyped for each patient, usually lasting for seconds. They consist of mainly multiple, bright coloured, small circular...

متن کامل

Oscillucusis and sudden deafness in a migraine patient.

Migraine is a complex disease that includes neurologic, gastrointestinal and autonomic symptoms, although headache is most common feature. In a portion of cases headache is preceded by focal neurologic symptoms termed auras. Auditory symptoms only rarely occur as part of an aura. We describe a patient whose 13-year migraine history that included the abnormal perception an oscillation of the int...

متن کامل

Migraine with Aura or Sports-Related Concussion: Case Report, Pathophysiology, and Multidisciplinary Approach to Management.

The evaluation and management of athletes presenting with clinical features of migraine headache with aura in the setting of sports-related head trauma is challenging. We present a case report of a 15-yr-old boy with a history of migraine with visual aura that developed acute visual disturbance and headache after a head injury during an ice hockey game. The patient underwent comprehensive asses...

متن کامل

CACNA 1 A : The Exciting Headache Gene

Migraine headache is a common, chronic, debilitating pain that affects roughly 6-8% of men and 15-18% of women in the U.S. and Europe (WHO, 2004). In the U.S., the annual cost of migraine treatment ranges from 13-17 billion dollars (Goldberg, 2005; Blumenfeld, 2005). Often it causes deficits in cognition, function, and sleep. Until recently, no research had defined the molecular basis for such ...

متن کامل

EVALUATION OF PATIENTS WITH HEMIPLEGIC MIGRAINE IN MACKENZIE HEADACHE CLINIC

Background: The sporadic type of Hemiplegic Migraine (HM) is sometimes observed among migrainous patients (MP) and mimics ischemic strokes. Methods: In an evaluation of two-hundred consecutive adult MP in the Mackenzie headache clinic, Canada during 2004 , 9% of the patients met the criteria established by the International Headache Society for sporadic HM. Female to male sex ratio, family...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره 8  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2012