Written by Bedirhan Atabay
Alice in Wonderland Syndrome can be defined as a struggle with perceiving the sizes and shapes of the objects in the area. This syndrome, which was first coined in 1955 by Dr. John Todd, also distorts reality. The name comes from the popular novel Alice in Wonderland.
Even though the date that disease is discovered rather early for actual research to be conducted and official information to be found, the complex information about the effects of the syndrome or how common it occurs is non-existent as the syndrome is mostly temporary; therefore, only less than 200 people required direct medical attention, the rest of the patients recovered fastly. However, even though there was not enough research, conducted research shows that two-thirds of the patients are actually underage individuals, which means that the appearance of the syndrome is more common for younger people, especially children.
(Image Credit: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63220432/download-images-from-encrypted-tbn0-gstatic-com-using-python.)
AIWS can be categorized into three types: Patients that visually distort the sizes of the objects around them, which is the most common one at 75%, patients that visually distort their own body, and patients that have both of those. Also, it is worth mentioning that the majority of the patients with AIWS only see micropsia or macrophilia, the occasions that two of them are seen together are rare.
For the reason why AIWS occurs, the scientists are not sure about the reasons as the topic is already a topic that has been left undiscovered. However, the known reasons are migraines, viral infections such as EBV, and seizures such as epilepsy. There are also not any methods to diagnose AIWS due to the syndrome being uncommon and temporary. The most used way to diagnose is to ask questions to the patient about the syndromes and make a neurological test on him. Some of those tests are Imaging Test, Spinal Tap, Electroencephalogram, and Visual Evoked Potentials.
In conclusion, AIWS is considered a dangerous disease with possible damage it can make to human health; however, there is one factor that visibly reduces its effectiveness, and it is the fact that this syndrome is a temporary one. It is often said that the syndrome is rare; however, there is a possibility that there might be an underdiagnosing problem. With that being said, we do not have enough information about the concept of AIDS syndrome, but new research to gain new information is yet to come.
References:
Alice in wonderland syndrome (AIWS): Symptoms & treatment. Cleveland Clinic. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24491-alice-in-wonderland-syndrome-aiws.
Naarden, T., ter Meulen, B. C., van der Weele, S. I., & Blom, J. D. (2019, April 18). Alice in wonderland syndrome as a presenting manifestation of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Frontiers. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2019.00473/full.
Upham, B., Ullman, S., Bowers, E. S., Patino, E., Bellefonds, C. de, Upham, B., Orenstein, B. W., Dunleavy, B. P., & Phillips, Q. (n.d.). All about Alice in Wonderland syndrome. EverydayHealth.com. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://www.everydayhealth.com/migraine/interesting-facts-about-alice-in-wonderland-syndrome/.
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