Future directions for research

Collerton, D; Mosimann, UP; Perry, E

doi:10.1002/9781118892794.ch13

Future directions for research

Lookup NU author(s): Daniel Collerton, Dr Urs Mosimann, Emeritus Professor Elaine Perry

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Abstract

© 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. All rights reserved. Hallucinations are very individual and highly variable. In order to manage that variability, the predominant approach has been to group people together: all people with Parkinson's disease (PD) with complex hallucinations compared to all people with Parkinson's disease without complex hallucinations. The lack of organizational and institutional focus on visual hallucinations has held back developments, but researchers are starting to reach a critical mass large enough and well-connected enough, to become self-sustaining. Each field of inquiry has majored in specific questions; eye disease has looked closely at phenomenology, neurodegenerative disorders at interactive brain mechanisms, and psychosis at the psychological and emotional consequences of hallucinations. Focus on the neuroscience of visual hallucinations should not distract us from wider questions. There is good evidence that the consequences of visual hallucinations vary considerably from one person to another. Better understandings of the underlying neuroscience of hallucinations should open up new potential treatment avenues.