Biology Newsfeed

Coffee Breakdown: Is There a Link Between Caffeine and Hallucinations?

Scientific American - Posted: July 13th, 2009, 10:00am EDT

pHave you ever heard a song when none was playing, clearly seen someonersquo;s face when no one was there or felt the presence of a person, only to turn around to an empty room? If yoursquo;ve consumed a lot of caffeine--the equivalent to seven cups of coffee--you are three times more likely to hear voices than if you had kept your caffeine intake to less than a cup of coffee, according to psychologists at the University of Durham in England. Their recent study shows that overingesting the stimulant slightly increases your risk of experiencing other hallucinations as well./ppCaffeine heightens the physiological effects of stress, lead author Simon Jones says. When someone feels anxiety, the body releases the hormone cortisol, and when people drink plenty of caffeine-infused tea, coffee or soda, their body produces more of the hormone when they encounter stressful events. Researchers have proposed that cortisol may trigger or exaggerate psychotic experiences by increasing the amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine flowing into the brainrsquo;s limbic areas, evolutionarily ancient regions involved in emotion, memory and behavior./p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coffee-breakdown[More]/a

Read more

Return to the Newsfeed