Believing you have been abducted by aliens could be as bad for your mental health as actually being kidnapped.
Elvis Presley, David Bowie and Robbie Williams are among those who believe in UFOs, and thousands of people worldwide claim to have fallen victim to an alien abduction.
Now a study has found almost half of 'alien abductees' meet the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
That proportion is slightly higher than the rate in people who have been kidnapped.
Researchers could only look at 19 people claiming to have been abducted by aliens, as they are not easy to find.
When compared to 32 people who did not think they had been taken by extraterrestrials, the rate of PTSD was higher for those claiming an alien abduction.
Now a study has found almost half of 'alien abductees' meet the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (stock image)
The findings provide interesting evidence that people can be traumatised by something which almost certainly never actually happened.
The authors of the study, which involved Zaragoza University in Spain, state: 'The emotional reaction to memories of an implausible experience can be similar to an individual's response to a genuinely traumatic event.'
They add: 'Abductees can have an emotional reaction analogous to PTSD because, regardless of whether their recollections are true or false, their fear is real.'
Among the volunteers in the study who reported alien abductions, five reported seeing 'strange' lights in the sky, while 15 reported a spaceship and various alien life forms.
Interferences with electronic devices like the radio or television were described by two people, and six remembered a 'bedroom visitor'.
More than half had memory loss from their 'abduction', typically covering one to three hours, although one person said their memory was blank for a whole day-and-a-half.
More than half had memory loss from their 'abduction', typically covering one to three hours, although one person said their memory was blank for a whole
