Hallucinations and Mental Health in Children

Hallucinations refer to the experience of sensory perceptions in the absence of real external stimulation of the relevant sensory organ. In children they can present during states of reduced awareness and be sleep related or linked to abnormal neurological toxic states. Hallucinations – mainly auditory or visual in modality are a key feature of psychotic states, but they can also present in the context of virtually any other child psychiatric disorder, and hallucinations – probably largely simple in nature are also commonly reported by children and young people in general population samples. This review outlines hallucinatory presentations in delirium and in psychotic and non-psychotic child psychiatric disorders; it addresses their predictive value for later psychopathology, and the assessment and management of hallucinations in children.