Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

Jan Dirk Blom (1965, the Netherlands) is a professor of clinical psychopathology at Leiden University. He obtained his MD in 1994, and started working as a resident in the Neurology Department of the University Medical Center Utrecht. In 1996 he switched to psychiatry, and in 2001 registered as a clinical psychiatrist. In 2003 he obtained his PhD at Leiden University’s Department of Philosophy. He has been working at Parnassia Psychiatric Institute in The Hague since 1996. He specialises in the field of psychotic disorders, and is head of the Outpatient Clinic for Uncommon Psychiatric Syndromes. In addition, he is director of Parnassia’s Psychiatric Residency Training Programme for Adult Psychiatry. He published over 100 scientific texts, as well as several books.

• Inside the consulting room.- The making of a syndrome.- Charles Dodgson.- Neurobiology.- Diagnosis and treatment.- Did Charles Dodgson suffer from Alice in Wonderland syndrome?.- Appendix A: Table 1 Charles Dodgson’s medical history.- Table 2 Visual distortions (metamorphopsias).- Table 3 Somesthetic and other non-visual distortions.- Table 4 Conditions causing Alice in Wonderland syndrome.- Appendix B: Transcript of On Catching Cold, by Charles Dodgson (Oxford: University Press, 1881).- Appendix C: Proposed diagnostic criteria for Alice in Wonderland syndrome.