Comment on: what are delusions? What are hallucinations?

Pamela Spiro Wagner tried to post the following as comment at the end of my blog entitled ‘What are delusions?’ ‘What are hallucinations?’ but was unable to do so. She sent me a mail asking me to post them for her and I, too, was unable to succeed so here they are, in a separate post. Thank you Pamela.

Thank you Jill for these definitions. One important point in addition is that way too many people, including psychiatrists, forget that until proven otherwise, visual hallucinations should be investigated as ‘organic’ or drug-induced and not a part of a schizophrenia syndrome ordinarily. I cannot emphasize this enough. If someone presents with visual hallucinations especially without auditory hallucinations, they should be worked up for a physical illness or ‘organic condition’ (all persons with psychosis should be in fact) and not summarily dismissed as having schizophrenia. Infectious diseases, drug abuse or medication interactions, all sorts of things, even simple urinary tract infections could be the culprit instead.