A 52-year-old woman whose rare condition was reported in The Lancet suffered from hallucinations that caused her to see human faces as dragons.
“She could perceive and recognize actual faces, but after several minutes they turned black, grew long, pointy ears and a protruding snout, and displayed a reptiloid skin and huge eyes in bright yellow, green, blue, or red,” the Anglo-Dutch research team wrote, according to Metro.co.uk.
Brain scans and blood tests showed that she was healthy, and doctors eventually diagnosed her with prosopometamorphopsia, a psychiatric condition that affects perception of faces, Metro.co.uk reported.
“She saw similar dragon-like faces drifting towards her many times a day from the walls, electrical sockets, or the computer screen, in both the presence and absence of face-like patterns, and at night she saw many dragon-like faces in the dark,” the researchers wrote.
The unidentified patient’s hallucinations were brought under control after she was prescribed rivastigmine, an anti-dementia medication.
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