Todd’s Syndrome is a neurological disorder that effects ones visual perception of physical objects and their surroundings. An athlete begins to experience episodes of micropsia and macropsia (objects within their visual focus appear to be smaller or larger than they actually are). This can cause the athlete to perceive that their own body is bigger or smaller in size than they actually are. Surrounding objects can also appear farther or closer than they seem but, because of the athlete’s visual sight being distorted it can lead to the athlete to see non-uniformed shapes (Metamorphopsia). Todd’s Syndrome has also been given the name Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AWS) due to the signs and symptoms being similar to what occurs in the …show more content…
One of the first articles written about Alice in Wonderland Syndrome was by Dr. John Todd in 1955 which is why the name of the condition is Todd’s Syndrome. In his article “The Syndrome of Alice and Wonderland” he includes a number of case studies that involve different patients but, somewhat similar symptoms. Case 1 of his article focuses on a 39 year old woman. She had been referred to a psychiatric center with “anxiety neurosis complicated by an intermittent disorder of body image which had worried her from childhood” (Todd 702). Her signs and symptoms mostly consisted of macropsia. She stated that during an episode she would grow as large as the room she occupied. She described this experience as “If I put my hand out I could reach the far wall” (Todd 702). She would rarely experience micropsia, but when she did, she stated that it felt as if she was shrinking and her hand would disappear. The woman has also stated that there was no family history of this condition. Case 4 of Dr. Todd’s articles involves a 17 year old girl who was also referred to a psychiatric center when she was experiencing AWS symptoms brought about by an anxiety trigger. Compared to the Case 1’s patient, while having an episode she would experience micropsia describing it as shrinking down to half her size. The patient would also experience Teleopsia (when objects appear further …show more content…
The S/S of a migraine include and intense throbbing pain, photophobia, phonophobia, most of the time unilaterally and can sometimes be associated with nausea and vomiting. In the article “ A migraine variant with abdominal colic and Alice in wonderland syndrome: a case report and review” it classifies AWS as a migraine variant which is an equivalent to a migraine but expresses itself in forms more than just head pain. It states that “They are encountered in 3-5% of patients with migraine and usually affect children and young adults” (Hamed). The reason why it is harder to inhibit AWS caused by migraines is because they can only be managed but not cured completely. There is a case study that follows a 13 year old girl that receives severe migraines and experiences symptoms of AWS while having them. She described that “Getting out of bed was impossible because she felt dizzy looking at the floor, which seemed a long way down and she felt she would fall” (George, Bernard). The patient had a family history of epilepsy, migraines, stroke and depression. Once she began medications to control the migraines, she had another migraine but less severe as the ones she was having before. After to two weeks she had no further headaches which resulted in no more visual disturbances. Due to there not being a cure for migraines she will still have the AWS episodes but controlling the cause will decrease there