What is prosopometamorphopsia? All about the rare PMO "Demon Faces" neurological condition, explained

A rare disease known as prosopometamorphopsia has grabbed the attention of the public. Also known as PMO, it is a condition where an individual sees distorted faces of the other person he or she is looking at. The problem has been reported by a man who has been seeing demonic faces quite frequently.

The man's identity was revealed as Victor Sharrah, and he has been previously diagnosed with bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorder. The 58-year-old additionally had other problems in the past, including a head injury, along with carbon monoxide poisoning.

Sharrah initially reported his problem to a university laboratory, adding that he was not having a similar issue in terms of the objects inside or outside his house. In an interview with CNN, Sharrah described his experience and said:

"Imagine waking up one morning and suddenly everybody in the world looks like a creature in a horror movie."

Researchers from the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College managed to create the faces through editing, based on the description given by Sharrah. The result eventually stated that Sharrah was suffering from prosopometamorphopsia.

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Prosopometamorphopsia cases have been very rare over the years: Symptoms, treatment, and other details explained

Prosopometamorphopsia is a condition where faces appear distorted, and it usually exists for a few days or weeks. Patients might get to see smaller or larger faces than the normal size, although the causes behind the condition are still being investigated.

The name for this condition is derived from a Greek word for face called "prosopon" and the other half refers to perceptual distortions. Very few cases of PMO have been reported over the years, and the reported figure is said to be 75 until now.

As mentioned earlier, Victor Sharrah's condition was the latest case, and a report by Dartmouth explained his condition by saying:

"The patient, a 58-year-old male with PMO, sees faces without any distortions when viewed on a screen and on paper but sees distorted faces that appear "demonic" when viewed in-person. The case is especially rare because he does not see distortions of faces across all contexts."

Antonio Mello, who is currently a student at the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, stated that there have been other cases where patients could not provide a proper description of the distorted faces.

The condition is also described as a face hallucination by some experts, and it can be reportedly treated with certain antidepressants. The symptoms might be different in everyone, and the patient might see a distorted face of others or himself while looking at the mirror.

Victor Sharrah's case is expected to bring more awareness to cases of prosopometamorphopsia. Speaking to CNN, Sharrah described how he has been living with the condition and said:

"It does kind of distance me from other people a bit. I try not to let it because I know what it is, it's PMO. Yet I still feel like I'm not getting as close to people as I used to."

On the other hand, Brad Duchaine, a co-author involved with the research related to Victor's condition, said that new cases are being reported in one or two weeks. He further stated that patients usually refuse to speak about it, since they are worried about how people are going to react.

Antonio Mello claims that there have been cases where doctors diagnosed the patient suffering from PMO with some other disorder. Meanwhile, Sharrah is trying to live a normal life and has reportedly been trying to avoid the problem by wearing glasses with green lenses while going out of his home.