Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is described as a group of psychotic disorders in which personal, social and occupational functioning is deteriorated as a result of disturbed thought processes, strange perceptions, unusual emotional states and motor abnormalities. It is a debilitating disorder with tremendous social and psychological costs both to the patients, as well as to their families and society. The symptoms of schizophrenia can be grouped into three categories: positive symptoms, negative symptoms and psychomotor symptoms.
A person affected by schizophrenia has a weird sensation of the pricking of needles by someone on his arm. Identify the type of hallucination in this case:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Tactile hallucination
Hallucinations are perceptions that occur in the absence of external stimuli; besides hearing, they can involve the other senses.
Option (1) Somatic hallucination — Incorrect. A somatic hallucination is a sense of something happening inside the body, such as a snake crawling inside one’s stomach. The pricking is felt on the arm, on the skin, not inside the body.
Option (2) Gustatory hallucination — Incorrect. In gustatory hallucinations food or drink tastes strange; the sense of taste is involved, not touch.
Option (3) Tactile hallucination — Correct. Tactile hallucinations involve the sense of touch, in forms of tingling and burning on the skin. Feeling needles pricking the arm when nobody is doing it is one of them.
Option (4) Olfactory hallucination — Incorrect. Olfactory hallucinations involve smell, such as the smell of poison or smoke.
NCERT (2025-26): “Symptoms of Schizophrenia … People with schizophrenia may have hallucinations, i.e. perceptions that occur in the absence of external stimuli. Auditory hallucinations are most common in schizophrenia. Patients hear sounds or voices that speak words, phrases and sentences directly to the patient (second-person hallucination) or talk to one another referring to the patient as s/he (third-person hallucination). Hallucinations can also involve the other senses. These include tactile hallucinations (i.e. forms of tingling, burning), somatic hallucinations (i.e. something happening inside the body such as a snake crawling inside one’s stomach), visual hallucinations (i.e. vague perceptions of colour or distinct visions of people or objects), gustatory hallucinations (i.e. food or drink taste strange), and olfactory hallucinations (i.e. smell of poison or smoke).…” |