A significant association has been found between sexual trauma and visual hallucinations in individuals with psychotic disorders.

Psychotic disorders affect millions worldwide, and hallucinations are just one symptom that can severely impact daily life, leading to isolation, distress, and reduced quality of life.

Swinburne’s Professor Susan Rossell was part of the team who discovered the link while investigating connections between physical, sexual, and emotional trauma.

She says the findings are an important step forward in understanding the complex relationship between life experiences and mental health symptoms.

“While auditory hallucinations are the most common and severe, visual hallucinations were uniquely linked to a history of sexual trauma,” she says.

“This connection was even stronger for those who endured sexual trauma in both childhood and adulthood, where the self-reported severity of the trauma was notably higher.

“This challenges the traditional childhood focus in mental health assessments and treatments.”

Professor Rossell says it is well known within the research community that people who experience auditory hallucinations have a significant history of trauma.

“Up until now we didn’t know whether any other hallucinatory experiences such as visual, olfactory, tactile or multisensory hold the same relationship,” she says.

“It's encouraging to see research that moves beyond the well-trodden path of auditory hallucinations and childhood trauma, revealing nuances that could personalise care.

“However, it's also sobering. It highlights how repeated trauma across life stages might amplify distressing symptoms, underscoring the resilience required by those affected.”

The research could transform how mental health care can support people with psychosis, making treatments more effective and compassionate.

“Larger studies should explore why sexual trauma particularly affects visual hallucinations, perhaps through brain imaging or examining factors like dissociation or memory processing,” Professor Rossell says.

“I hope clinicians are inspired to integrate assessments for non-auditory hallucinations and adulthood traumas into routine practice and develop trauma-focused therapies tailored to visual symptoms.

“It could make a world of difference to people feeling hopeless.”