The effect of caffeine and stress on auditory hallucinations in a non-clinical sample

Both the diathesis-stress model and the continuum theory of schizophrenia attempt to explain the mechanism by which stress may facilitate the expression of the symptoms of schizophrenia in non-clinical samples. Caffeine has also recently been reported to increase proneness to hallucinate. In this st...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Personality and individual differences Vol. 50; no. 5; pp. 626 - 630
Main Authors:	Crowe, S.F., Barot, J., Caldow, S., D’Aspromonte, J., Dell’Orso, J., Di Clemente, A., Hanson, K., Kellett, M., Makhlota, S., McIvor, B., McKenzie, L., Norman, R., Thiru, A., Twyerould, M., Sapega, S.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01-04-2011 Elsevier
Subjects:	Adult and adolescent clinical studies Biological and medical sciences Caffeine Christmas False alarms Hallucinations Medical sciences Neuropharmacology Noise Pharmacology. Drug treatments Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer..., (alzheimer disease) Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry Psychopathology. Psychiatry Psychopharmacology Psychoses Psychosis–proneness Schizophrenia Songs Stress Psychosis–proneness Stress Hallucinations False alarms Caffeine Human Healthy subject CNS stimulant Psychotropic Schizophrenia Auditory hallucination Psychosis Respiratory analeptic Psychosis-proneness Theoretical model Predisposition Xanthine derivatives
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Summary:	Both the diathesis-stress model and the continuum theory of schizophrenia attempt to explain the mechanism by which stress may facilitate the expression of the symptoms of schizophrenia in non-clinical samples. Caffeine has also recently been reported to increase proneness to hallucinate. In this study, 92 non-clinical participants were assigned to either a high or a low stress condition and a high or a low caffeine condition on the basis of self-report. After they had been primed, the participants were asked to listen to white noise and to report each time they heard the song “White Christmas” during the white noise. The song was never played. The results indicated that the interaction of stress and caffeine had a significant effect on the reported frequency of hearing “White Christmas”. The results demonstrated that high caffeine levels in association with high levels of stressful life events interacted to produce higher levels of “hallucination” in non-clinical participants, indicating that further caution needs to be exercised with the use of this overtly “safe” drug.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0191-8869 1873-3549
DOI:	10.1016/j.paid.2010.12.007