As we reported yesterday, people with a higher caffeine intake, from sources such as coffee, tea and caffeinated energy drinks, are more likely to report hallucinatory experiences such as hearing voices and seeing things that are not there.
When under stress, the body releases a stress hormone called cortisol. More of this stress hormone is released in response to stress when people have recently had caffeine. It is this extra boost of cortisol which may link caffeine intake with an increased tendency to hallucinate, said the researchers.
This isn’t likely a concern for most people, as most people don’t consume 7 or more cups of coffee every day. (And if you do, you might have more problems than simply hearing the occasional odd voice or whatnot.)
But it has a direct impact on people who might already be at greater risk for hearing voices or seeing things — for instance, people with schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia who also drink large amounts of caffeine may be inadvertently putting themselves at greater risk for future hallucinations (medications or not).
The upshot is if you’re seeing things that are not really there, or hearing an occasional voice and no one’s around, and you drink an enormous amount of coffee or tea (or Coca-Cola or other caffeinated beverage), those hallucinations may be caused by the caffeine, not a mental disorder. Cut it back to something under 6 or 7 servings a day, and you may notice a decrease in such concerns.
Read the full article: High Caffeine Consumption Linked to Hallucinations
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Links to This Article
Acid Trips at Starbucks « The Wrap Up (1/16/2009)
Acid Trips in Starbucks « Juxtaposition of intellect and smut (4/7/2009)
6 Comments to
“Hearing Voices or Seeing Things? Cut Back on the Coffee”
As a social worker, I used to go to many board and care facilities where a high number of residents were diagnosed with some type of psychotic disorder. Usually, they were also addicted to the coffee and cigarettes. I wonder how much that would exacerbate thier symptoms. Just an interesting thought.
Absolutely… it makes you wonder. And also wonder if these results will filter down to such facilities and their staff. It would be interesting if people tracked how much coffee some of their clients were drinking and see if there was any relationship to increased problematic hallucinations or acting-out behaviors.
Or they could just replace the regular stuff with decaf in the day room. 
Or even replace the regular stuff in the dayroom with half-caf, to help step them down.
I haven’t quite hit the seven-cup-a-day mark, but I’m really close most days. This is interesting to know.
Oh, for heaven’s sake. Some very healthy skepticism is required here, and should be used more often on this site — even though I enjoy the site. The coverage and comments here make the classic error of mistaking correlation for causation. Could caffeine drinkers be sleep-deprived, and therefore more prone to disordered sleeping? Could people prone to psychosis be more likely to consume large amounts of coffee? Could people who use other drugs that would promote psychosis be more likely to use coffee? See The Guardian’s “Bad Science” blog for a dissection of this study.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/17/bad-science-ben-goldacre
There is a countermeasure being used by people
who hear “voices” they presume to be artificial in
origin, conversationally called “voice to skull
harassment.” These people report relief as a result
of using this idea.
The idea is to play, either through a speaker or by
way of a portable MP3 player using headphones, a
“jumble” of audio tracks from radios playing
different talk-oriented stations. This has allowed
people with heavy voice to skull experiences to
break their attention free from the content of the
voices, and allows them a rest from forced
attention 24/7.
This countermeasure *downloadable* from this link:
http://www.creviews.net/antiv2s.htm
I’d like to suggest that this countermeasure might
well provide at least some welcome relief for
psychiatric patients troubled by “voices” of
NATURAL illness origin as well.
Sincerely,
Eleanor White (retired engineer)
Elliot Lake, Ontario
Canada
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 16 Jan 2009
