The list of interview questions Dr. Henry Nasrallah suggested in “The hallucination portrait of psychosis: Probing the voices within” (From the Editor, Current Psychiatry, May 2009) is a much-needed reminder of the clinical importance of patients’ verbal auditory hallucinations. In 15 years of practice—much of that inpatient psychiatry—I have cared for many patients with hallucinations, and until recently I confess my interview was not as thorough as Dr. Nasrallah advises. Then after attending a workshop in January 2009, I modified my usual clinical interview when a patient reported religious, paranoid, persecutory, and/or command verbal auditory hallucinations. The results have been startling.
Anne M. Stoline, MD
Perryville, MD