Hearing voices
And in the brain?A remarkable fact: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain has revealed that during a hallucination, the area associated with the sensory channels involved (visual, auditory, olfactory, etc.) is activated in the cortex, whereas, by definition, there is no perception there. In addition, the Broca and Wernicke areas, which are essential for language, play a part in auditory verbal hallucinations. ʺHowever, there is a nuance here because these activation patterns (auditory areas ‘switched on’ during an auditory hallucination, etc.) aren’t present in all patientsʺ, says Frank Larøi. Furthermore, this type of data doesn’t explain several essential aspects of the experience, such as the negative content of the auditory verbal hallucinations in psychotic patients. Support groupsTraditionally, in psychiatry, hearing voices is considered a sign of psychosis. The solution? To prescribe neuroleptic drugs, which can essentially help schizophrenic patients to control the so-called positive symptoms of their illness, such as hallucinations and delusions. ʺHowever, it is believed that despite these drugs, 30 to 60 % of patients continue to have difficulty managing their symptomsʺ, Frank Larøi specifies. In fact, antipsychotics aren’t specifically directed at auditory verbal hallucinations. Hence, they aren’t really appropriate for dealing with the difficulties related to these symptoms. That’s why, on the basis of the work he undertook at the end of the 1970s, Dutch psychiatrist Marius Romme succeeded in shaking off the shackles of mental illness and assimilate these voices as an experience that can be managed. Of course, they may ʺtake hold ofʺ psychotic patients, insult them, threaten to kill them, push them to carry out extreme acts, but, when approached from a non-medical perspective (though often as a complement to treatment with neuroleptic drugs, and even psychotherapy), they appear easier to control. This led to the creation of small support groups in Holland some 20 years ago, attended by both clinical and non-clinical voice hearers. The initiative then spread to many other countries, including France and French-speaking Belgium quite recently, in the last 20 months. Two groups were set up in Brussels, followed by one in Namur and one in Liège. The four entities are part of the association REV-Belgium - Réseau belge des entendeurs de voix - based on its French counterpart REV-France. |
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