The Woman Who Saw Dragons

Dragons are among the most famous and horrific of the world’s mythological creatures. Their folktales are pervasive and prominent in many cultures, they are widespread from America to Europe and India to China.

They never existed on earth, still there was someone who could see them everywhere. A case came into the limelight through an issue of The Lancet, when a Dutch medical team reported a peculiar case of a woman who saw human faces distort into dragons.

Background Of The Patient

A middle-aged woman had a history of Unusual Hallucinations and Mild Depressions since childhood. You might be thinking those delusions must have terrified her, but the reality is quite shocking.

She grew up thinking that seeing faces metamorphose into dragons is normal. These hallucinations were not restricted to only faces, she could see them everywhere — in chairs, walls, boards, computer screens or just emerging out of the dark.

This made her believe everybody could see faces the same way as she did. Initially, everything seemed fine to her, but as she grew up, her condition deteriorated, causing complications in her professional and personal life.

These hallucinations exuded her mind with frustration and stress. She isolated herself, became depressed and addicted to alcohol, but managed to get through her life. As her symptoms worsened, the 52-year-old woman finally looked for help and reported her condition at a psychiatric clinic in the Netherlands in July 2011.

Identification of Illness

The Woman described the dragon faces as, "black, grew long, pointy ears and a protruding snout, and displayed a reptiloid skin and huge eyes in bright yellow, green, blue, or red." says the report.

The researchers collected more information regarding her earlier symptoms. Further research showed that she had previously suffered from passage hallucinations, recurrent headaches, and Irregular Zoopsia.

They conducted multiple tests, such as Electroencephalogram (EEG), Blood tests and, Neurological Examination, but the MRI Brain showed minor white abnormalities around the lentiform nucleus and in the semi-oval center. The Testings confirmed the evidence of deviant electrophysiological activity in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex, the body part responsible for the recognition of visual patterns.

Her condition was no less than an “enigma” in the field of psychology. They could not figure out the exact problem, even after extensive testings. Due to the lack of uniform reports, the synthesis for ‘Prosopometamorphopsia’ is finite.

However, the Neurologists and Psychiatrists predicted the possibilities of peduncular hallucinosis, a rare neurological disorder that causes vivid & colorful visual hallucinations, and Prosopometamorphopsia, a rare psychiatric disorder in which faces appear distorted.

Treatment Of The Illness

Psychologists suggested psychoeducational classes for reducing secondary illusions. They also stopped her previous medications and used the approach of trial-and-error method for curing the illness.

They prescribed her 300 mg of Valproic Acid, an anticonvulsant used to control the electrical activity of the brain. She had asymptomatic days for the first time in her life but this bliss only lasted for a few days. Soon, she developed an Auditory sleep start, causing loud thuds and bangs in her sleep.

After observing the side effects of the medication, the Medical team put her on 3 mg of Rivastigmine instead of Valproic Acid, a cholinesterase inhibitor used to treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease, for regulating cognitive and functional activities. This lowered the frequency of auditory symptoms and rehabilitated her condition.

Now, through the treatment, she is out of the frightening world of Dragons. Her mental health is improved along with her physical health. She had a stable job for more than 3 years and her communication with Family and friends had turned over a new leaf.

Citations :

[1] Blom, Jan Dirk; Sommer, Iris; Koops, Sanne; Sacks, Oliver (2014). “Prosopometamorphopsia and Facial Hallucinations”. The Lancet.

[2] Mocellin, Ramon; Walterfang, Mark; Velakoulis, Dennis (2006). “Neuropsychiatry of Complex Visual Hallucinations”. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.