Caffeine Linked to Hallucination

People with high caffeine intake are three times more likely to experience hallucinations, including voices, visions, and ghosts, LiveScience reports. A study found that subjects who consumed three cups of brewed coffee, or seven of instant, were more prone to freaking out than their temperate brethren. Researchers think caffeine’s enhancing effect on the body’s stress response could be to blame.

But the jury’s still out on a direct connection between a jolt of joe and psychosis. People prone to hallucination might just be using caffeine as a coping mechanism. “More work is needed to establish whether caffeine consumption, and nutrition in general, has an impact on those kinds of hallucination that cause distress,” a psychologist said. In any case, delusions related to caffeine are generally mild. (More scientific study stories.)