Visual Hallucinations in an Elderly Woman: A Presentation of Charles Bonnet Syndrome?

McKoy, June M.; McGartland, Laura

doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2006.00668_10.x

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…So wurden Patienten erfolgreich mit Antikonvulsiva wie Carbamazepin oder Valproinsäure [30] behandelt. Auch Gabapentin [31] wurde ebenso wie trizyklische Antidepressiva [6] wirksam zur Therapie der Halluzinationen eingesetzt. Olanzapin, ein Antipsychotikum, konnte die visuellen Wahrnehmungen eines 62-jährigen sehbehinderten Patienten stoppen [32].…”

Section: Kriterienunclassified

Charles-Bonnet-Syndrom – klinische Besonderheiten eines faszinierenden Krankheitsbilds

Elflein

2013

Klin Monatsbl Augenheilkd

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Even mentally and cognitively healthy people can experience visual hallucinations. These are called Charles Bonnet's syndrome, named after the Swiss scientist, who first described such perceptions in the 18th century. Usually patients possess insight in the unreality of their visual experiences. The definitions of CBS are not consistent. Visual impairment or blindness is not part of every definition, but often is associated with CBS. Ophthalmologists should be aware of this syndrome, since its prevalence is high among blind or visually impaired people: patients often are reluctant to admit their hallucinatory experiences, because of the fear of being stigmatised. Possibly women are affected more often than men. CBS is well investigated in the elderly, but also young people might experience visual hallucinations. Hallucinatory contents commonly are persons, with varying duration of the hallucinations. Most patients experience more than one hallucinatory episode. CBS is best investigated in patients suffering from AMD. Neuroimaging studies suggest that cerebral abnormalities, mainly in the occipital cortex, might also play a role in the pathogenesis of CBS. Many patients do not require (drug) treatment, since education itself is helpful in most cases. The pathophysiology remains unclear, but there are a couple of theories.

show abstract

Section: Kriterienunclassified

Charles-Bonnet-Syndrom – klinische Besonderheiten eines faszinierenden Krankheitsbilds

Elflein

2013

Klin Monatsbl Augenheilkd

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The possibility that patients with DLB could be misdiagnosed with CBS, particularly in the early stages, had been previously hypothesized [12], and careful longitudinal observations are recommended to confirm the presence of DLB in elderly patients with suspected CBS [8, 12]. In fact, some authors suspect that CBS cases described in the literature [13, 14] are in fact DLB cases [15, 16], and there are reports of some true DLB cases being mistaken for CBS in the early phase of dementia [8, 9]. These last mistakes are most likely related to the fact that the early clinical manifestations of DLB and, in particular, of the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) phase of DLB are poorly defined.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preclinical Polymodal Hallucinations for 13 Years before Dementia with Lewy Bodies

Abbate

Trimarchi

Inglese

et al. 2014

Behavioural Neurology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective. We describe a case of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) that presented long-lasting preclinical complex polymodal hallucinations. Background. Few studies have deeply investigated the characteristics of hallucinations in DLB, especially in the preclinical phase. Moreover, the clinical phenotype of mild cognitive impairment-(MCI-) DLB is poorly understood. Methods. The patient was followed for 4 years and a selective phenomenological and cognitive study was performed at the predementia stage. Results. The phenomenological study showed the presence of hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations that allowed us to make a differential diagnosis between DLB and Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS). The neuropsychological evaluation showed a multiple domain without amnesia MCI subtype with prefrontal dysexecutive, visuoperceptual, and visuospatial impairments and simultanagnosia, which has not previously been reported in MCI-DLB. Conclusions. This study extends the prognostic value of hallucinations for DLB to the preclinical phases. It supports and refines the MCI-DLB concept and identifies simultanagnosia as a possible early cognitive marker. Finally, it confirms an association between hallucinations and visuoperceptual impairments at an intermediate stage of the disease course and strongly supports the hypothesis that hallucinations in the earliest stages of DLB may reflect a narcolepsy-like REM-sleep disorder.

show abstract

“…To the Editor: We read with interest the report by Drs. McKoy and McGartland describing visual hallucinations in an elderly woman 1 . Their patient had several ocular conditions that are known to be associated with Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS)—retinitis pigmentosa, cataracts, and, possibly, angle‐closure glaucoma (as evidenced by the bilateral iridectomies).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The authors stated that the hallucinations “occurred primarily at night, often awakening her from sleep.” 1 We feel that it is important to consider possible differential diagnoses of hallucinations that awaken a patient from sleep. A MEDLINE search revealed no references to cases of CBS when the hallucinations experienced were primarily those that awaken patients from sleep.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Hallucinations in an Elderly Woman—was It Really Charles Bonnet Syndrome?

Tan

Eong

2007

J American Geriatrics Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Visual Hallucinations in an Elderly Woman: A Presentation of Charles Bonnet Syndrome?

Cited by 6 publications

References 9 publications

Charles-Bonnet-Syndrom – klinische Besonderheiten eines faszinierenden Krankheitsbilds

Charles-Bonnet-Syndrom – klinische Besonderheiten eines faszinierenden Krankheitsbilds

Preclinical Polymodal Hallucinations for 13 Years before Dementia with Lewy Bodies

Visual Hallucinations in an Elderly Woman—was It Really Charles Bonnet Syndrome?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About