Daijiworld Media Network- The Hague

The Hague, Aug 29: In a medical case that has baffled doctors, a 52-year-old woman in the Netherlands was diagnosed with a rare neurological condition that made her see human faces transform into those of dragons.

The patient approached an outpatient psychiatric clinic in The Hague, stating that whenever she looked at people, their faces would change shape — turning black, sprouting long ears, a snout, reptilian skin, and large glowing eyes in shades of yellow, green, blue, or red. She also reported that dragon-like faces would appear spontaneously before her, even when no one was around. The unusual hallucinations, which she said had troubled her since childhood, deeply affected her daily life and social interactions.

Doctors conducted several tests, including blood work, an EEG, and neurological examinations, all of which came back normal. However, an MRI revealed lesions near the lentiform nucleus in her brain. These lesions, believed to have developed long ago due to ruptures in small blood vessels or possibly oxygen deprivation at birth, were thought to play a role in triggering abnormal brain activity.

Specialists suspected the distortions stemmed from atypical electrical signals in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex — the region of the brain that processes faces and objects. Based on their findings, they diagnosed her with prosopometamorphopsia (PMO), a rare disorder that causes severe distortion of human facial features.

The woman was initially treated with valproic acid, which reduced her hallucinations. However, when she began experiencing auditory hallucinations during sleep, her doctors switched her to rivastigmine, a drug used for dementia. The new treatment helped her regain control over her symptoms, significantly improving both her work and social life over a three-year period.

Medical experts note that PMO is extremely rare, with only about 81 documented cases in the last century. While most patients experience temporary distortions lasting days or weeks, this case stood out for the woman’s consistent and highly specific hallucinations of reptilian dragon-like faces.