The primary means of treating auditory hallucinations is antipsychotic medications which affect dopamine metabolism. If the primary diagnosis is a mood disorder (with psychotic features), adjunctive medications are often used (e.g., antidepressants or mood stabilizers). These medical approaches may allow the person to function normally but are not a cure as they do not eradicate the underlying thought disorder.

Psychopharmacological treatments include anti-psychotic medications. Psychology research shows that first step in treatment is for the patient to realize that the voices they hear are creation of their own mind. This realization is argued to allow patients to reclaim a measure of control over their lives. Some additional psychological interventions might allow for the process of controlling these phenomena of auditory hallucinations but more research is needed.

To date, there is no successful method of treatment that "cures" musical hallucinations. There have been successful therapies in single cases that have ameliorated the hallucinations. Some of these successes include drugs such as neuroleptics, antidepressants, and certain anticonvulsive drugs. A musical hallucination was alleviated, for example, by antidepressant medications given to patients with depression. Sanchez reported that some authors have suggested that the use of hearing aids may improve musical hallucination symptoms. They believed that the external environment influences the auditory hallucinations, showing worsening of symptoms in quieter environments than in noisier ones. Oliver Sacks' patient, Mrs. O'C, reported being in an "ocean of sound" despite being in a quiet room due to a small thrombosis or infarction in her right temporal lobe. After treatment, Mrs. O'C was relinquished of her musical experience but said that, "I do miss the old songs. Now, with lots of them, I can't even recall them. It was like being given back a forgotten bit of my childhood again." Sacks also reported another elderly woman, Mrs. O'M, who had a mild case of deafness and reported hearing musical pieces. When she was treated with anticonvulsive medications, her musical hallucinations ceased but when asked if she missed them, she said "Not on your life."

There are few treatments for many types of hallucinations. However, for those hallucinations caused by mental disease, a psychologist or psychiatrist should be alerted, and treatment will be based on the observations of those doctors. Antipsychotic and atypical antipsychotic medication may also be utilized to treat the illness if the symptoms are severe and cause significant distress. For other causes of hallucinations there is no factual evidence to support any one treatment is scientifically tested and proven. However, abstaining from hallucinogenic drugs, stimulant drugs, managing stress levels, living healthily, and getting plenty of sleep can help reduce the prevalence of hallucinations. In all cases of hallucinations, medical attention should be sought out and informed of one's specific symptoms.

Given the unknown nature of MES, treatments have been largely dependent on an individual basis. Treatments can vary from being as little as self-reassurance to pharmaceutical medications.

Medications can be helpful, such as antipsychotics, benzodiazepines or antiepileptics, but there is very limited evidence for this. Some case studies have found that switching to a prednisolone steroid after a betamethasone steroid which caused MES helped alleviate hallucinations or the use of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, Donepezil, have also found that it successfully treated an individual's MES. However, because of the heterogeneous etiology, these methods cannot be applied as general treatment.

Other than treatment by medicinal means, individuals have also successfully alleviated musical hallucinations by cochlear implants, listening to different songs via an external source, or by attempting to block them through mental effort, depending on how severe their condition is.

Because there is no prescribed treatment, the first starting place is to reassure the CBS sufferer of their sanity, and some charities provide specialist hallucination counselling "buddies" (people who have had CBS, or have CBS and are no longer fazed by it) to talk to on the telephone. Sometimes it is carers and/or physicians that need advice and guidance.

The physician will consider on a case-by-case basis whether to treat any depression or other problems that may be related to CBS. A recent case report suggests selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may be helpful.

Research suggests that paraphrenics respond well to antipsychotic drug therapy if doctors can successfully achieve sufficient compliance. Herbert found that Stelazine combined with Disipal was an effective treatment. It promoted the discharging of patients and kept discharged patients from being readmitted later. While behavior therapy may help patients reduce their preoccupation with delusions, psychotherapy is not currently of primary value.

Treatment of any kind of complex visual hallucination requires an understanding of the different pathologies in order to correctly diagnose and treat. If a person is taking a pro-hallucinogenic medication, the first step is to stop taking it. Sometimes improvement will occur spontaneously and pharmacotherapy is not necessary. While there is not a lot of evidence of effective pharmacological treatment, antipsychotics and anticonvulsants have been used in some cases to control hallucinations. Since peduncular hallucinosis occurs due to an excess of serotonin, modern antipsychotics are used to block both dopamine and serotonin receptors, preventing the overstimulation of the lateral geniculate nucleus. The drug generically called carbamazepine increases GABA, which prevents the LGN from firing, thereby increasing the inhibition of the LGN. Regular antipsychotics as well as antidepressants can also be helpful in reducing or eliminating peduncular hallucinosis.

More invasive treatments include corrective surgery such as cataract surgery, laser photocoagulation of the retina, and use of optical correcting devices. Tumor removal can also help to relieve compression in the brain, which can decrease or eliminate peduncular hallucinosis. Some hallucinations may be due to underlying cardiovascular disease, so in these cases the appropriate treatment includes control of hypertension and diabetes. As described, the type of treatment varies widely depending on the causation behind the complex visual hallucinations.

There is no treatment of proven effectiveness for CBS. Some people experience CBS for anywhere from a few days up to many years, and these hallucinations can last only a few seconds or continue for most of the day. For those experiencing CBS, knowing that they are suffering from this syndrome and not a mental illness seems to be the best treatment so far, as it improves their ability to cope with the hallucinations. Most people with CBS meet their hallucinations with indifference, but they can still be disturbing because they may interfere with daily life. Interrupting vision for a short time by closing the eyes or blinking is sometimes helpful.

This antidepressant medication is a serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI). In the case study of a 52-year-old female suffering from phantosmia for 27 years, a dose of 75 mg a day relieved and eliminated her symptoms. The drug was prescribed initially in order to treat her depression.

Another treatment option is the topical solution of cocaine HCl which also provides relief for a short time period by acting as an anesthetic and desensitizing the nasal neurons. The topical solution is applied on the nostril. This topical solution can have several side effects as it has been found that some patients suffering from troposmia started to show symptoms of phantosmia after its use. Other patients have lost complete function of the nostril where the drug was applied.

Intoxication accounts for a small percentage of musical hallucination cases. Intoxication leads to either withdrawal or inflammatory encephalopathy, which are major contributors to musical hallucinations. Some of the drugs that have been found to relate to musical hallucinations include salicylates, benzodiazepines, pentoxifylline, propranolol, clomipramine, amphetamine, quinine, imipramine, a phenothiazine, carbamazepine, marijuana, paracetamol, phenytoin, procaine, and alcohol. General anesthesia has also been association with musical hallucinations.

In a case study by Gondim et al. 2010, a seventy–seven-year-old woman with Parkinson's disease (PD) was administered amantadine after a year of various other antiparkinsonian treatments. Two days into her treatment, she started to experience musical hallucinations, which consisted of four musical pieces. The music persisted until three days after cessation of the drug. Although the patient was taking other medications at the same time, the timing of onset and offset suggested that amantadine either had a synergistic effect with the other drugs or simply caused the hallucinations. Although the case wasn't specific to intoxication, it leads to the idea that persons with PD who are treated with certain drugs can experience musical hallucinations.

Treating auditory verbal agnosia with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is controversial because of its inconsistency as a treatment method. Although IVIG is normally used to treat immune diseases, some individuals with auditory verbal agnosia have responded positively to the use of IVIG. Additionally, patients are more likely to relapse when treated with IVIG than other pharmacological treatments. IVIG is, thus, a controversial treatment as its efficacy in treating auditory verbal agnosia is dependent upon each individual and varies from case to case.

The treatment of psychosis depends on the specific diagnosis (such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or substance intoxication). The first-line psychiatric treatment for many psychotic disorders is antipsychotic medication, which can reduce the positive symptoms of psychosis in about 7 to 14 days.

The choice of which antipsychotic to use is based on benefits, risks, and costs. It is debatable whether, as a class, typical or atypical antipsychotics are better. Tentative evidence supports that amisulpride, olanzapine, risperidone and clozapine may be more effective for positive symptoms but result in more side effects. Typical antipsychotics have equal drop-out and symptom relapse rates to atypicals when used at low to moderate dosages. There is a good response in 40–50%, a partial response in 30–40%, and treatment resistance (failure of symptoms to respond satisfactorily after six weeks to two or three different antipsychotics) in 20% of people. Clozapine is an effective treatment for those who respond poorly to other drugs ("treatment-resistant" or "refractory" schizophrenia), but it has the potentially serious side effect of agranulocytosis (lowered white blood cell count) in less than 4% of people.

Most people on antipsychotics get side effects. People on typical antipsychotics tend to have a higher rate of extrapyramidal side effects while some atypicals are associated with considerable weight gain, diabetes and risk of metabolic syndrome; this is most pronounced with olanzapine, while risperidone and quetiapine are also associated with weight gain. Risperidone has a similar rate of extrapyramidal symptoms to haloperidol.

There are clinical trials being done to further research for treatments. At the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) they support research for rare diseases like agnosia. Some organizations that are recruiting for trials are using clincaltrials.gov and give status updates on the trials.

Current methods in treating early-onset schizophrenia follow a similar approach to the treatment of adult schizophrenia. Although modes of treatment in this population is largely understudied, the use of antipsychotic medication is commonly the first line of treatment in addressing symptoms. Recent literature has failed to determine if typical or atypical antipsychotics are most effective in reducing symptoms and improving outcomes. When weighing treatment options, it is necessary to consider the adverse effects of various medications used to treat schizophrenia and the potential implications of these effects on development. A 2013 systematic review compared the efficacy of atypical antipsychotics versus typical antipsychotics for adolescents:

Madaan et al. wrote that studies report efficacy of typical neuroleptics such as thioridazine, thiothixene, loxapine and haloperidol, high incidence of side effects such as extrapyramidal symptoms, akathisia, dystonias, sedation, elevated prolactin, tardive dyskinesia.

Psychological treatments such as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) are possibly useful in the treatment of psychosis, helping people to focus more on what they can do in terms of valued life directions despite challenging symptomology.

These strategies elicit the use of an unaffected modality. For example, visual agnosics can use tactile information in replacement of visual information. Alternatively, an individual with prosopagnosia can use auditory information in order to replace visual information. For example, an individual with prosopagnosia can wait for someone to speak, and will usually recognize the individual from their speech.

In incidents where tumors and their pressure effects are the cause of pure word deafness, removal of the tumor has been shown to allow for the return of most auditory verbal comprehension.

There are symptoms that are mechanism-based that are associated with hallucinations. These include superficial pressure and stabbing pain. Others include a burning-like sensation or electric shock feeling. Human studies of these symptoms remain mostly unclear unlike similar studies in animals.

Treatment of APD typically focuses on three primary areas: changing learning environment, developing higher-order skills to compensate for the disorder, and remediation of the auditory deficit itself. However, there is a lack of well-conducted evaluations of intervention using randomized controlled trial methodology. Most evidence for effectiveness adopts weaker standards of evidence, such as showing that performance improves after training. This does not control for possible influences of practice, maturation, or placebo effects. Recent research has shown that practice with basic auditory processing tasks (i.e. auditory training) may improve performance on auditory processing measures and phonemic awareness measures. Changes after auditory training have also been recorded at the physiological level. Many of these tasks are incorporated into computer-based auditory training programs such as Earobics and Fast ForWord, an adaptive software available at home and in clinics worldwide, but overall, evidence for effectiveness of these computerised interventions in improving language and literacy is not impressive. One small-scale uncontrolled study reported successful outcomes for children with APD using auditory training software.

Treating additional issues related to APD can result in success. For example, treatment for phonological disorders (difficulty in speech) can result in success in terms of both the phonological disorder as well as APD. In one study, speech therapy improved auditory evoked potentials (a measure of brain activity in the auditory portions of the brain).

While there is evidence that language training is effective for improving APD, there is no current research supporting the following APD treatments:

- Auditory Integration Training typically involves a child attending two 30-minute sessions per day for ten days.

- Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes (particularly, the Visualizing and Verbalizing program)

- Physical activities that require frequent crossing of the midline (e.g., occupational therapy)

- Sound Field Amplification

- Neuro-Sensory Educational Therapy

- Neurofeedback

However, use of a FM transmitter has been shown to produce significant improvements over time with children.

Individuals who develop paraphrenia have a life expectancy similar to the normal population. Recovery from the psychotic symptoms seems to be rare, and in most cases paraphrenia results in in-patient status for the remainder of the life of the patient. Patients experience a slow deterioration of cognitive functions and the disorder can lead to dementia in some cases, but this development is no greater than the normal population.

Whatever the cause, the bodily related distortions can recur several times a day and may take some time to abate. Understandably, the person can become alarmed, frightened, and panic-stricken throughout the course of the hallucinations—maybe even hurt themselves or others around them. The symptoms of the syndrome themselves are not harmful and are likely to disappear with time.

The main form of sensory integration therapy is a type of occupational therapy that places a child in a room specifically designed to stimulate and challenge all of the senses.

During the session, the therapist works closely with the child to provide a level of sensory stimulation that the child can cope with, and encourage movement within the room. Sensory integration therapy is driven by four main principles:

- Just right challenge (the child must be able to successfully meet the challenges that are presented through playful activities)

- Adaptive response (the child adapts his behavior with new and useful strategies in response to the challenges presented)

- Active engagement (the child will want to participate because the activities are fun)

- Child directed (the child's preferences are used to initiate therapeutic experiences within the session)

This therapy retains all of the above-mentioned four principles and adds:

- Intensity (person attends therapy daily for a prolonged period of time)

- Developmental approach (therapist adapts to the developmental age of the person, against actual age)

- Test-retest systematic evaluation (all clients are evaluated before and after)

- Process driven vs. activity driven (therapist focuses on the "Just right" emotional connection and the process that reinforces the relationship)

- Parent education (parent education sessions are scheduled into the therapy process)

- "joie de vivre" (happiness of life is therapy's main goal, attained through social participation, self-regulation, and self-esteem)

- Combination of best practice interventions (is often accompanied by integrated listening system therapy, floor time, and electronic media such as Xbox Kinect, Nintendo Wii, Makoto II machine training and others)