A 22-year-old man is brought to your office by his father to discuss his son's mental health disorder. The patient was diagnosed with schizophrenia 6 months ago and has been taking medication since. The father states that his son's dose isn't high enough and you need to raise it. He states that his son has been hearing things that don't exist. You ask the young man what is going on and he tells you that his father is just jealous because his sister talks only to him. His father turns to him and says, "Son, you know your sister died 2 years ago!" His son replies "Well, she still talks to me in my head all the time!" Which best describes this patient's abnormality of perception?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A hallucination is a subjective sensory perception in the absence of real external stimuli. The patient can hear, see, smell, taste, or feel something that does not exist in reality. In this case, his sister has passed away and cannot be speaking to him, although in his mind he can hear her. This is an example of an auditory hallucination, but hallucinations can occur with any of the five senses.

A 22-Year-Old Man Is Brought to Your Office by His