High prevalence of visual hallucinations in research subjects with chronic schizophrenia

The authors examined the prevalence of visual hal-lucinations in severely ill hospitalized research subjects with carefully diagnosed chronic schizophrenia and found it to be high. A chart review of 1 00 discharged subjects revealed documentation of visual hallucina-tions in 32 %, and a prospective examination of 43 additional subjects revealed a history of visual hallu-cinations in 56 % (N=24). Also, the fact that in 43% of the patients with visual hallucinations the history of visual hallucinations was first documented during the research ward work-up suggests that clinicians fre-quently do not inquire about visual hallucinations in patients with chronic schizophrenia. (Am J Psychiatry 1989; 146:526-528) V isual hallucinations, which are typical of drug