A Review of Cases in the Literature on Auditory Hallucinations: It would be Possible for Mozart to Hallucinate his Music

Abstract

Introduction: A review of cases in the literature on auditory hallucinations, and associated clinical characteristics, to late onset psychosis and hearing loss is performed. It has been speculated that Mozart was suffering from musical auditory hallucinations and that he used these hallucinating phenomena to write his works. Musical hallucinations that appear in elderly women may have different causes and there are few cases described in the literature have been described in different clinical situations: loss of hearing ability; brain lesions, vascular processes and encephalitis; consumption of psychoactive substances and psychiatric disorders. Methods: Cases published in the literature on auditory hallucinations from 2011 to 2019 are reviewed. Results: Different cases are described, from episodes of musical auditory hallucinations to: late age, after a surgical process, after using a medication, due to hearing problems, by musicians, by evocations of remote memory and during dreams, in addition to perception of music in patients with previous mental health disorders. Conclusion: Musical hallucinations are a rare and complex phenomenon. Clinically they may be more frequent in women and in old age. Musical hallucinations are a borderline pathology between neurology, otolaryngology and little-known psychiatry, which is often mistakenly linked to a mental illness.