Disturbances of perception in depressive patients

In a sample of 121 depressive patients hospitalized at Eginition Hospital from 1976 to 1980, 22 (18.2%) patients manifested disturbances of perception and, with 1 exception, all patients had hallucinations. Auditory and visual hallucinations were the most frequent. The group of patients with disturbances of perception had a positive family history for affective illness (p less than 0.025), a smaller number of previous depressive episodes (p less than 0.05), a greater frequency of delusional thinking (p less than 0.001) and psychomotor agitation (p less than 0.05).