When people hear music no one else can hear or see things that aren’t really there, they may worry they are going crazy. If they tell anyone what’s happening, they may be taken in for a psychiatric evaluation. In some cases, though, a prescribed medicine could be responsible for the hallucinations. You don’t have to be on an acid trip to experience altered perceptions.
Several weeks ago we received a question from a reader: “Amitriptyline is causing the strangest experience: I hear music all day, both classical and rap. No one has ever heard of such a reaction. When I stop the amitriptyline, the music fades out.”
We assured her that drug-induced hallucinations happen, though they are uncommon. Then we heard from another reader: “A friend taking the same medication also hears music day and night. The neighbors are not playing music, so she thought she was crazy. She is happy to learn she is not.”
Yet another opined: “I imagine you’re going to hear from a lot of readers who’ve experienced hallucinations on antidepressants. Years ago, I was treated for back pain with an antidepressant, muscle relaxers and a pain medicine. Shortly after starting on them, I began to experience auditory hallucinations:
I heard a full orchestra playing wildly dramatic classical music.
“The final straw came when I was riding my motorcycle (not a quiet machine) and couldn’t hear the sound of the engine and wind over the orchestra playing in my head! I took myself off the antidepressant, and the hallucinations disappeared.”
Antidepressants are not the only medicines that may trigger auditory or visual hallucinations. Some antiviral drugs prescribed for flu and antibiotics may also have this consequence: “My husband developed a really bad cold. I took him to the doctor, who prescribed Flumadine and gave him samples of Avelox. The doctor told us nothing about this drug except that it was strong. Last night my husband was talking to people who were not there.”
It is not too surprising that her husband experienced such a reaction. Both Flumadine, an antiviral prescribed for influenza, and Avelox, a powerful antibiotic, can cause hallucinations.
Other readers have reported their own experience with antibiotics such as Biaxin. Most are unprepared for hallucinations and find them extremely frightening. As one woman wrote, “Within three days, I thought I was losing my mind and nearly had my husband commit me.”
Children are also vulnerable. There have been reports in the medical literature of kids who saw insects or spiders when taking certain decongestant cold medicines.
Unexplained auditory hallucinations call for a thorough medical exam. One reader shared her experience: “Singing in my head was the main symptom of my benign brain tumor. I almost died before it was correctly diagnosed.”
