Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

All of us must have heard the story Alice in Wonderland but did you know that there’s a rare syndrome named after the story?

Introduction

A change is how your brain perceives an environment or how your body looks is what Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS) about.

It’s a rare condition that causes temporary episodes of distorted perception and disorientation. In this condition people might feel smaller or larger than they actually are. People also feel there surroundings coming closer to them or moving further away than they really are.

This syndrome affects your senses of vision, touch and hearing. Time may seem to pass slower or faster than it really is. In other words, people lose sense of time.

Symptoms experienced during an episode and time period.

The time till which an episode of AIWS lasts may vary from person to person and also the type of episodes experienced vary. For some people an episode may last for some minutes while for others it may last for about an hour.

The common symptoms experienced during an episode are as follows:

1. Migraine
2. Perceptual distortion
3. Time distortion
4. Sound distortion
5. Numb limbs or loss of coordination

Causes

What causes people to have AIWS is not yet clear.

According to a review in 2016, the most common cause appears to be migraines and viral infections that lead to this syndrome. A study found out that about 33% people going through this syndrome had infections. Other 6% had head trauma and migraines but more than half of the cases had no known causes.

Researchers also have suggested that unusual electrical activity in the brain results in abnormal blood flow to the parts of the brain that process environment and visual perception.

AIWS gets better overtime and rarely causes any complications or problems.

Treatment

Unfortunately there is no direct treatment for AIWS. If the syndrome results from migraines, the migraines are treated by the doctors or if an infection is the cause antiviral agents are prescribed.

If the cause is unknown and if an adult or a child experiences the episodes of this syndrome, all you can do is to wait for the episode to pass and to reassure them that it’s not harmful.

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is also known as Todd’s syndrome as it was named by an English Psychiatrist, John Todd in 1955.