Previous reports suggest that adverse events during childhood could be related to an array of psychiatric problems. Here, we question the relationship between childhood traumatic experiences and the sensory complexity of hallucinations in a cohort of 75 children and adolescents. We evidence a positive link between the number of sensory modalities involved in hallucinations and history of childhood trauma, even after controlling for the co-occurrence of suicidal ideation or the number of ICD-10 diagnoses. These findings support initiatives in which a routine exploration of traumatic events in childhood is performed when multimodal hallucinations are present.

The increasing development of apps for digital devices provides an opportunity for new instruments to assess hallucinations in young individuals. Here we present the Multisensory HAllucinations Scale for Children (MHASC), dedicated to assessing complex early-onset hallucinations. The MHASC will soon be translated into multilanguage versions with the support of the International Consortium of Hallucination Research.