Possible Causes of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

POSSIBLE CAUSES OF AIWS

The actual causes of AIWS are still not yet known. However, experts state that some of the possible causes of AIWS include temporal lobe epilepsy, Epstein-Barr virus, classical migraine, Sinusitis, brain tumour, psychoactive drugs, Schizophrenia and Delirium Tremens.

Temporal Lobe epilepsy, also known as psychomotor epilepsy is a form of focal epilepsy, a chronic neurological condition characterized by recurrent seizures. It can be caused by high fever in babies, where the thermoregulation system of the young is still immature, and results in neuron death and scarring of left or right hippocampus. Temporal lobe epilepsy can also be due to traumatic brain injury, infection, stroke and injury due to previous lack of oxygen. There will be repeated occurrence of uncalled for seizures. Because of the seizure spreading to both temporal lobes, the patient loses awareness at time of a multifaceted seizure and has memory loss. Apart from that, the patient will also have sensation such as auditory sensation (sound and tune), gustatory sensation (taste) and olfactory sensation (smell) that are not physically present.

On the other hand, Epstein-Barr virus is one of the most common viruses in humans that cause infectious mononucleosis (an infectious, widespread viral disease with flu-like symptoms). Infectious mononucleosis shows symptoms such as fever, sore throat and fatigue in adolescence and young adults. AIWS is seen as the initial symptom for the virus. Most people infected by Epstein-Barr virus gain adaptive immunity eventually. The infection does not cause any symptom to the patients and is unable to be distinguished from other mild, brief illness in childhood.

As stated earlier, AIWS is related to migraine, thus it is not a surprise that one of its possible causes is classical migraine. Classical migraine involves migraine headaches followed by an aura. What is an aura? An aura is a perceptual disturbance felt by migraine sufferers before...