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Hearing Voices in a Non-Psychiatric Population

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2010

Catherine Lawrence ,
Jason Jones  and
Myra Cooper
Catherine Lawrence
Affiliation:
Solihull Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, UK
Jason Jones*
Affiliation:
Thames Valley Forensic Mental Health Service and University of Birmingham, UK
Myra Cooper
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, UK
*
Reprint requests to Jason Jones, Department of Psychology and Psychological Therapies, Oxford Clinic, Littlemore Mental Health Centre, Sandford Road, Oxford OX4 4XN, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Background: Many people hear voices but do not access psychiatric services and their experiences are largely unknown, not least because of the difficulty in contacting such people. This study investigates the beliefs held about voices, distress experienced, and provides a topographical account of the experience of hearing voices in a sample of individuals who hear voices in a non-psychiatric population. Method: A quantitative questionnaire internet-based study with a within-subjects and between-subjects design was used. The internet was used to make contact with people who hear voices. One hundred and eighty-four participants in the general population who heard voices completed measures online assessing anxiety, depression, and beliefs about their dominant voice. Results: Participants reported a broad range of experiences associated with hearing voices, some in keeping with the previous research on clinical populations. Conclusion: The use of the internet to recruit and research non-clinical samples of people who hear voices is supported. This study provides details regarding demographic information and the experience of voice hearing from a fairly large sample of people who hear voices in a non-psychiatric population. It lends support to the idea that voice hearing occurs on a continuum, with evidence that many people hear voices in the general population and are not distressed by the experience.

Keywords

Hearing voicesauditory hallucinationgeneral populationschizophrenia
Type
Brief Clinical Reports
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , May 2010 , pp. 363 - 373
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2010

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