People Who Drink 7 Cups Of Coffee Per Day Have 3X Greater Chance Of Hallucinations - Study

[dracodraconis]

People Who Drink 7 Cups Of Coffee Per Day Have 3X Greater Chance Of Hallucinations - Study

A Durham University study reports that people who drink 7 or more cups of coffee each day are 3 times as likely to report auditory hallucinations (specifically, hearing a person's voice when nobody is there) than those who drank the equivalent of 1 cup of instant coffee per day, at least among the 200 students involved in the study. By comparison, 3 percent of the population are estimated to regularly experience auditory hallucinations.

Comments

[corradus.livejournal.com]

Well D'uh!

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

Seems if you get that much caffeine coursing through your veins your brain starts to go a little wonky.

[ms-danson.livejournal.com]

The voices... the voices... they call to me... they say ... double mocachinno no whip....

[bluetourmaline.livejournal.com]

"In the study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Medical Research Council, 200 students were asked about their typical intake of caffeine containing products, such as coffee, tea and energy drinks as well as chocolate bars and caffeine tablets. Their proneness to hallucinatory experiences, and their stress levels, were also assessed. Seeing things that were not there, hearing voices, and sensing the presence of dead people were amongst the experiences reported by some of the participants."

It doesn't say whether they actually compensated for stress level in the study. It looks to me like it is more likely that people who are under a lot of stress resort to caffeine, AND people who are under a lot of stress are more likely to experience hallucinations.

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

The study's authors are careful to state that the results don't, in fact, show that coffee causes hallucinations, but that people who consume large quantities of coffee report having hallucinations. They postulate that people who are anxious may both experience hallucinations and drink more coffee. They demonstrated a correlation between phenomenon, not a causal relationship.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/01/090114-caffeine-hallucinations.html?source=rss

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

That said, I just noticed the title on the link in my previous reply... the reporter went for sensationalism over accuracy by titling it "coffee may cause hallucinations".

[bluetourmaline.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that is what was annoying me about the media spin on this story (I heard it in passing on the radio at work, too.)

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

I see that a lot, so I find I have to be careful in reading an science story, even in sources like National Geographic, without generating too many preconceived notions based on a badly-chosen title. Interestingly enough, it was the PhysOrg version of the article that had an appropriate title that simply said the two effects were linked. PhysOrg is mostly user-generated while NG is supposed to be written by professionals.

[ancalagon-tb.livejournal.com]

even though, yes there is spin, I am SO posting this near the coffee pot at work :D

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

Not a bad idea... I might do that in our own coffee room this morning.