Study Shows Coffee Drinkers Hallucinate More

LONDON - A study had found,a people who drink more than seven cups of coffee a day tend to hallucinate more than less caffeine-driven colleagues.

Those with a high caffeine intake are three times more likely to have heard a non-existent person's voice than those who drink one cup a day, said the research by psychologists at Durham University.

"This is a first step towards looking at the wider factors associated with hallucinations,Previous research has highlighted a number of important factors, such as childhood trauma. Many such factors are thought to be linked to hallucinations, in part because of their impact on the body's reaction to stress" said Simon Jones, the PhD student who led the study.

"One interpretation may be that those students who were more prone to hallucinations used caffeine to help cope with their experiences,More work is needed to establish whether caffeine consumption, and nutrition in general, has an impact on those kinds of hallucination that cause distress" he said.

However, the study noted that the tendency to hear voices or have other hallucinations may not be caused by caffeine, but simply reflect the kind of people who drink lots of coffee.

The researchers now plan to study the impact of other forms of food and drink on hallucinations.

The study appears in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.