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Study says caffeine addicts hallucinate
Deprive a coffee addict of their morning fix and you will soon hear about it. But give them too much caffeine, and it turns out that they are the one that will start hearing things.
In the latest addition to the saga of research papers published on the bitter, brown elixir, scientists have found that drinking five or more coffees a day is enough to increase an individual's tendency to hallucinate. Caffeine lovers with high-stress lifestyles were most at risk.
The study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, measured the effect of stress and caffeine on 92 people.
The participants were grouped according to self-reported stress levels and caffeine consumption, with those drinking five or more standard caffeinated drinks a day classed as high caffeine users. Participants were then asked to listen to white noise and to report when they also heard part of Bing Crosby's White Christmas coming through the white noise. The song was never played, and researchers measured the number of false alarms reported. Those in the high-stress, high-caffeine group reported hearing the song three times as often as those in the low-stress, low caffeine group.
Those with a low stress, but high caffeine lifestyle reported the song 40 per cent more often than the low-stress, low caffeine group. ''The combination of caffeine and stress affect the likelihood of an individual experiencing a psychosis-like symptom,'' said the study's lead author, Simon Crowe, a neuroscientist at La Trobe University in Victoria.
Professor Crowe said the mental health risks associated with excessive caffeine use need to be addressed. ''We have a safe drinking guideline for alcohol but we don't have a safe caffeine guideline even though caffeine is a stimulant drug,'' he said.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand does not set limits for naturally occurring caffeine in food, but it does restrict the addition of caffeine to soft drinks, said a spokeswoman.
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