Schoolchildren suffering from voices in the head

Hearing voices may affect up to a fifth of schoolchildren children aged 11 to 13, a psychiatric study has found.

In most cases, the auditory hallucinations stop with time, the findings show. But children who continue to hear voices could be at risk of mental illness or behavioural disorders.

Researchers carried out psychiatric assessments of almost 2,500 children aged between 11 and 16 in Dublin. They discovered that 21 to 23 per cent of younger adolescents, aged 11 to 13, had experienced auditory hallucinations. Of this group, just over half were found to have a non-psychotic psychiatric disorder such as depression.

Just 7 per cent of older adolescents aged 13 to 16 reported hearing voices, but almost 80 per cent of those who did had a diagnosable psychological problem.

The findings are published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.