Alice In Wonderland Syndrome

Introduction-

Everyone have heard the story of Alice, our favourite character in childhood. Ever wondered where does the story comes from. May be the writer was creative or maybe he created the story out of his agony. Not agony precisely but it is said that writer Lewis carroll was suffering form Todd's syndrome or popularly known as Alice in Wonderland symdrome after his story.

Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AiWS) also known as Todd's syndrome is as interesting as it sounds to us but perplexing for those who suffer from it. If there are people out there who says they see objects expanding (macropsia) or minimizing (micropsia)or farther than they actually are, we might quickly conclude it as their imagination because to us, everything is normal but in reality, they actually see things either getting small or large or farther away from them. In fact, there is a difference in the visualization of size, shape, and distance of the object.

The interesting fact about this syndrome is the patient knows that he/she is hallucinating and how they perceive the objects are not real. They are not diagnosed with any mental ailments or any ocular defect.

Definition

It is a neuropsychological condition, affecting the perception of an individual causing micropsia, macropsia, teleopsia, pelopsia.

John Todd, a British psychiatrist in 1955 described this syndrome for the first time. His patient of migraine often complained about a change in perception either object is small or large. they also complained about time passing slowly or too speedily.

Symptoms

1. This syndrome affects vision, sensation, touch and hearing.
2. This is generally associated with migraine, dizziness, and nausea.
3. They feel that either object is distorting its size or their body is shrinking or growing.
4. the patient generally suffers from hallucination and this hallucination are generally known as "lilliputian"

5. There is often a chance where patient experience "paranoia" by misinterpreting common sound.
6. There are chances that suffering patient may see the other faces as distorted and object tilted.

Causes-

The correct reason for the syndrome is still unknown but is generally observed that it occurs at a young age.

There might be changes in parts of the brain dealing with senses of vision and hearing.
This may also be a type of Migraine Aura. In this type there is a change in perception of vision, hearing before or during headache.

It can also occur due to these reasons:
a) Epilepsy
b) Infection of Epstein-Barr virus
c) Stroke
d) Depression or schizophrenia

Treatment-

A major cause of the perception change is found to be migraine, so treatment of this syndrome includes prevention of triggering of migraine.

Medicines like anti-depressant, anti-seizure,and blood pressure medicine can be taken.

Case study-

A 63-year-old Japanese male was reported to have two concurrent episodes of major depression and AiWS. The patient complained of losing seriousness of any news or losing the value of money, which disturbed the estimation of magnitude and worth.

The patient was treated with antidepressant and antipsychotic and electroconvulsive therapy