Limited awareness of hallucinations in patients with Alzheimer’s disease

ABSTRACT

Introduction

We investigated the degree of cognitive insight in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) regarding their hallucinations, aiming to elucidate the subjective experiences and perceptions associated with this phenomenon.

Methods

Using a cross-sectional design, we invited both AD patients (n = 31) and their informants to evaluate the occurrence of hallucinations. Degree of cognitive insight was based upon the discrepancy between the patients’ and informants’ evaluations.

Results

Analysis demonstrated that AD patients rated the occurrence of hallucinations lower than their informants, indicating that patients tended to underestimate the frequency of their hallucinations. The discrepancy between the ratings of patients and informants was negatively correlated with cognitive functioning, suggesting that a greater discrepancy (indicating poorer insight) was associated with lower cognitive functioning in patients.

Discussion

Our findings highlight the deficits in insight into hallucinations among AD patients, specifically indicating that AD patients have limited awareness of their own hallucinations. Furthermore, our findings support the idea that deficits in insight into hallucinations are associated with the progression of AD.

KEYWORDS:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• awareness
• dementia
• hallucinations
• insight

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Raw data is available upon request to the correspondent author.

Additional information

Funding

Mohamad El Haj was supported by LABEX DISTALZ (Développement de stratégies innovantes pour une approche transdisciplinaire de la maladie d'Alzheimer).