What Causes Hallucinations in the Elderly?

Hallucinations are frightening for anyone, but even more so for the elderly people in your life. Because hallucinations are usually a symptom of something deeper going on, they are often one of the first signs of a serious underlying condition.

Understanding the potential causes for hallucinations in the elderly can help you take the necessary steps to tackle the problem and support your loved one’s recovery. In this post, we’ll explore what causes hallucinations in seniors and when to get their medical team involved.

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What Are Hallucinations?

A hallucination is a false perception that impacts your senses without any external stimuli. In other words, a hallucination is when you see, hear, smell, feel, taste, or otherwise sense something that isn’t there.

What Causes Hallucinations in the Elderly?

Old age and hallucinations go hand in hand.

Although a mental issue of some kind is usually the first thing that comes to mind, there are a variety of other reasons for hallucinations in the elderly that could be the true culprit. That’s why it’s important to be able to recognize the signs of hallucinations in older adults.

Before jumping to the conclusion that you’re witnessing symptoms of Alzheimer’s or dementia, consider that something else might be causing hallucinations including common issues like dehydration or side effects from medicine. Keeping track of other accompanying symptoms such as unusual beliefs or paranoia, problems seeing or hearing, seizures and headaches can help your loved one’s medical team narrow their focus while trying to identify the route cause.

Common Causes of Hallucinations in Old Age

Causes of hallucinations in the elderly include:

• Charles Bonnet Syndrome – Charles Bonnet syndrome is a condition characterized by visual hallucinations in people with deteriorating vision or partial blindness. It is most commonly observed in elderly people.
• Cognitive Decline – As cognitive issues like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia progress, they cause changes in the brain that impact a patient’s perception of reality. Seniors with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease may experience visual and auditory hallucinations. For example, your elderly patient may be seeing people who aren’t there or say they are hearing the voice of a loved one calling out to them.
• Dehydration – Dehydration in elderly adults is extremely common for a variety of reasons. If dehydration becomes severe enough the brain ceases to function properly which can lead to hallucinations.
• Hearing or Vision Loss – Hearing and vision loss are both commonly observed in older adults due to complications from issues like otosclerosis or glaucoma. As these issues progress, they often cause hyperactivity in the brain which in turn causes hallucinations.
• Medication Side Effects – Many medications that are popularly prescribed to seniors can cause hallucinations. For example, drugs that treat common senior health challenges like high blood pressure, drugs that treat disorders like Parkinson’s disease, and even antibiotics all come with hallucinations as a possible side effect.
• Mental Health – Hallucinations are sometimes a side effect of severe anxiety or depression. Seniors often struggle with their mental health due to major life changes, loss of independence, or social isolation.
• Sleep Disorders – Issues with falling or staying asleep are often associated with auditory hallucinations and delusions. If you’re noticing hallucinations in the elderly at night, a sleep disorder may be the culprit.
• Unrelated Illness – Most seniors deal with comorbidity, or the presence of two or more illnesses and/or diseases at the same time. Hallucinations may sometimes be a side effect of another serious underlying health issue. For example, both kidney and liver failure lead to a build up of toxins in the body, eventually impacting the brain and causing hallucinations.

How Do You Know If an Elderly Person Is Hallucinating?

In some cases, it may be unclear if your loved one is experiencing hallucinations, illusions, or delusions.

Hallucinations are different from delusions or illusions in a few key ways:

• Delusions are a strong belief in something that isn’t true, even when the individual is presented with evidence that their belief isn’t based in reality.
• Illusions are misinterpretations of actual sensory input rather than experiencing something that doesn’t exist. For example, mistaking a coat sitting on a chair for another person would be an illusion. Believing you can see or feel a person sitting in an otherwise empty chair would be hallucination.

Using context clues, you may be able to rule out these similar conditions. However, if you believe your senior is experiencing hallucinations, illusions, or delusions contact their primary care physician for a check up immediately.

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