Alice in wonderland syndrome (AIWS), also known as Todd’s syndrome, is a neuropsychological condition that causes a set of symptoms with alteration of body image. These distortions include appearing smaller(micropsia)… Click to show full abstract
Alice in wonderland syndrome (AIWS), also known as Todd’s syndrome, is a neuropsychological condition that causes a set of symptoms with alteration of body image. These distortions include appearing smaller(micropsia) or larger(macropsia) or appearing to be closer or farther than they are. The exact cause of AIWS is currently unknown. Some associations include, migraine, temporal lobe epilepsy, brain tumors, psychoactive drugs or Epstein-Barr-virus. The treatment for this disease primarily aims at treating the underlying reason as to why the patient had the event. 7-year-old boy presents to sleep clinic for nighttime hallucinations. Nightly episodes described as body parts that seem abnormally large or small and people talking very fast. Events lasted 15 minutes. Patient had full recall and developed anxiety when falling asleep. Medications at presentation: vitamins, melatonin, Montelukast. Montelukast was discontinued. Referred to neurology for video EEG, which was negative for frontal lobe seizures. Due to restless sleep and snoring, sleep study and ferritin was ordered. He was found to have mild OSA with an AHI of 2.2 and a ferritin level of 28. The patient was not considered a surgical candidate for his mild OSA; therefore, watchful waiting and re-initiation of montelukast proceeded with initiation of oral iron. At sleep clinic follow up, family noted improvement of hallucinations for 2-3 months and then restart, with worsening. Upon medication review, Montelukast was the inciting factor to the presence and resolution of hallucinations. In this patient the montelukast seemed to be the triggering factor of AIWS. It has been suggested that the inhibition of leukotriene receptors in the brain could be responsible for this drug reaction. No other obvious triggers, or results of work up were able to better explain his resolution once he discontinued montelukast. This just further promotes close pharmacologic vigilance in the pediatric population.
               
Click one of the above tabs to view related content.