In the Netherlands, the most common explanation for seeing people as dragons involves a trip to Amsterdam and a copious amount of shrooms.
But according to Live Science, one woman from The Hague had a real medical condition that caused her to hallucinate people’s faces morphing into dragons.
Let’s set the scene. Back in 2014, after decades of living with these terrifying visions, the woman finally sought help at an outpatient psychiatric clinic.
Faces with dragon-like features
The Live Science report, published in August 2025, tells of how the 53-year-old woman spoke with doctors about the vivid hallucinations she had been having since childhood.
When she looked at people, their faces “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,” according to a report by her doctors.
She never knew when the face of a friend would turn into a monstrosity.
Although initial tests showed nothing unusual, an MRI of her brain revealed small abnormalities that could explain what had been happening all along.
A rare condition
Doctors discovered lesions in the part of her brain that helps with object recognition.
The lesions in the “occipitotemporal cortex” triggered abnormal electrical activity.
Doctors said that temporary oxygen deprivation before or after her delivery during childbirth could have caused the lesions, given that she has lived with these hallucinations since childhood.
Damage to this part of the brain is most often linked to cognitive impairments such as those seen in Schizophrenia patients.
The physicians then diagnosed the woman with a form of prosopometamorphospsia (PMO), an uncommon condition that distorts how a person perceives human faces.
A 2021 review shows that only 81 cases of PMO have been reported over the past 100 years.
Relief at last
The doctors prescribed a drug that is typically used to treat symptoms of dementia caused by Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.
After three years of the treatment, there was a marked improvement in her work situation and social relationships.
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