Table 2

Characteristics of patients who experience visual hallucinations

	Patient 1	Patient 2	Patient 3	Patient 4
Age (years)	90	78	72	65
Sex	Female	Female	Male	Male
Race	Chinese	Chinese	Indian	Indian
Number of family members staying with patient	0	4	1	1
Ophthalmic diagnoses	Both eyes: glaucoma, cataract	Right eye: pseudophakic, left eye: cataract	Both eyes: glaucoma with superior arcuate visual field defect	Right eye: clinically significant macular oedema, posterior capsule opacity, left eye: cataract
Visual acuity	Right eye 20/60, left eye hand motion	Right eye 20/100, left eye 20/60	Right eye 20/30, left eye 20/40	Right eye 20/60, left eye 20/100
Duration of symptoms	1 year	2 months	1.5 years	1 year
Frequency of symptoms	Daily	Daily	Every 2–3 days	1–2 times per week
Duration of each episode	5 minutes–1 hour	Seconds	Seconds	5 minutes
Change in frequency of hallucination	Same	Stopped	Increased	Increased
Hallucinations	Children, Indian worker, corpse	Half body of a handsome male, flowers	People, animals, sheets and handkerchiefs	Man, dog, spectacles, and cup
Size compared to normal objects	Normal	Normal	Smaller	Normal
Coloured image	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Solid/transparent	Solid	Solid	Variable	Solid
Movement of images	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Clarity of image compared to normal images	Clearer	Clearer	Less clear	Same
Recurrent image	Yes	No	Yes	No
Always occurs in same region of visual field	No	No	No	No
Occurs only in worse seeing eye	No	No	No	No
Triggering factors	Watching television, eating	None	Watching television	None
Actions that stop hallucinations	None	Turn on lights	None	Approach object
Emotional reaction	Angry	Angry	Previously worried, now no reaction	No reaction
Discussed with family members	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Reaction of family members	Supportive	Supportive	“It’s your imagination”	–
Discussed with doctor	No	No	Yes	No
Reaction of doctor	–	–	“Laughed and recommended no further action”	–