Healthy Elderly Keeps Hearing Voices, Music, Bullies/History of Hearing Loss

[robinbird]

Hi everyone, I am tinnitus and pulsatile tinnitus person but today I am asking for feedback on my father-in-law.

He has had a history of hearing loss, severe, some occasions of vertigo. He has hearing aids. He would turn the tv up to full volume in order to hear without them, that's just to illustrate his loss. He is very healthy and independent at 92. Has a few minor health issues. This past year he has been plagued with hearing voices talking to him, swears the next door neighbor is keeping him up at night because of loud music. These voices are mean in nature and sometimes sing. There is nothing wrong with him ie: schizophrenia or related neurological disorders.

My thought is that it has to do with his severe hearing loss. And it usually happens when he is around quietness. Says he hears it slightly in a room with other stimulants like people talking, tv on etc.

He is getting depressed over this and I feel it is related to his hearing loss. Maybe even tinnitus.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Bill Bauer]

There is nothing wrong with him ie: schizophrenia or related neurological disorders.

Has a doctor ruled out the onset of dementia?

 

[robinbird]

Yes.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Yes.

Most people who hear voices are in fact healthy

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/h/hearing-voices

Looks like, just like with T, masking is all the doctors can offer...

Most often professionals sought to distract the voice hearer from their voices.

 

[Lorac]

My mother is 94. Whenever she starts acting kinda goofy, we have her checked out to make sure there is no urinary tract infection going on. A UTI can cause elderly people to act pretty weird. It might be worth checking out.

 

[robinbird]

Thanks for the reference.

 

[Contrast]

plagued with hearing voices talking to him, swears the next door neighbor is keeping him up at night because of loud music.

this is a pyschosis of some kind, It may be brought on by hearing loss and dementia setting in but it is not tinnitus.

 

[Contrast]

tinnitus is a neurological condition related to when the brain generates "simple tone-esque" noises in response to a loss of hearing to make up for destroyed hearing cells. It does not allow one to hear music, voices or experience activities.

The voices and hallucinations are dementia, and fall in a seperate category of mental health issues, hearing loss causes social isolation which also effects the cognitive functions of our brain leading to dementia.

 

[Contrast]

Has a doctor ruled out the onset of dementia?

just like we are skeptical about Hidden hearing loss, maybe we should also be skeptical about dementia test.

 

[Michael B]

I had a good friend who was very bright, well educated, and in his older age experienced the same. It was tough trying convincing him that it was all his imagination. In his younger days he would have understood, that's what made it all the more difficult.