First Case of Alice in Wonderland-like Seizures in a Mother and her Daughter: A New Sign for a Hereditary Origin? | Biomedgrid

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS) was named after the description of Lewis Carroll in his novel. In1955, John Todd, a psychiatrist described this entity for the first time. Todd described it as “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll. The author Carroll suffered from severe migraine attacks. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is a disorienting condition of seizures affecting the visual perception. AIWS is a neurological form of seizures influencing the brain, thereby causing a disturbed perception. Patients describe visual, auditory and tactile hallucinations and disturbed perceptions. The causes for AIWS are still not known exactly. Cases of migraine, brain tumors, depression episodes, epilepsy, delirium, psychoactive drugs, ischemic stroke, EBV, mycoplasma and malaria infections are correlating with AIWS like seizures. Neuroimaging studies reveal disturbance of brain regions including the temporoparietal junction, the temporal lobe and the occipital lobe as typical localization of the visual pathway. A hereditary form of AIWS-like seizures in 2 familiars (mother and daughter) were not described before and could be a sign for an underlying genetic origin. Moreover, in the daughter, AIWS seizures were only present in relaxed and tired situations and lying position.