Hallucinations in the acute schizophrenic-type psychosis: effects of gender and age of illness onset

Our objective was to test the hypothesis that gender, the age of illness on set, or the interaction between these two variables, would distinguish acut ely ill schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients who hallucinated from th ose who did not. Hallucinatory experiences were measured by the hallucinati on item of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale in a sample of 160 drug-free inpatients admitted for the treatment of an acute episode. Patients were ca tegorized as either non-hallucinators or hallucinators. An additional analy sis included only those who had 'severe' hallucinations (i.e., score greate r than or equal to 5). Female gender, but not age of onset, predicted a hig her frequency of hallucinations (irrespective of degree of severity) in the total sample, but specifically in the schizophrenic patients. These result s indicate that there may be gender differences in the propensity to experi ence hallucinations during the acute schizophrenic episode. (C) 1999 Elsevi er Science B.V. All rights reserved.