Wednesday 8 August 2012

Emedinews:Insights on Medicolegal Issues:What is hallucination?

What is hallucination?
Hallucination is false sense perception without any external object or stimulus. A criminal act committed by a sane person, due to hallucination will make him responsible for his act and he will be liable to be punished. But if the act is committed by an insane person, due to hallucination, then he may not be held responsible or may be held partially responsible for commission of the act.

Apart from insanity, hallucination may also occur in conditions like high fever, delirium of any origin, delirium tremens, and drug intoxications - hallucinogenic drugs, like cannabis, LSD, mescaline etc. and as withdrawal symptom of some drugs of addiction. It may affect one or more than one of the special nerves or nervous system. Accordingly, hallucinations are of the following types:
  • Visual hallucination: The sufferer experiences (visualizes) non–existent sights. He observes something without anything being present in front of him.
  • Auditory hallucination: The sufferer in this condition hears voices or sounds without any source or any such thing.
  • Olfactory hallucination: There is a false perception of smell or odor without any source.
  • Gustatory hallucination: The sufferer experiences different tastes without any food or drink.
  • Tactile hallucination: The sufferer experiences a sensation of crawling of insects over his body without any such a phenomenon actually happening.
  • Psychomotor hallucination: There is a feeling of movement of a part of the body, say a limb, though in reality there is no such movement.

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