A patient describes a distorted visual experience. Before revealing the answer, decide what distinguishes dysmegalopsia from a visual hallucination.

Ask whether a real object is present and simply being misjudged in size, distance, or shape, or whether something is being seen that is not there at all. Dysmegalopsia differs from a hallucination in that the object being distorted genuinely exists and is being looked at; nothing is being perceived that is not actually present. It also differs specifically from the Lilliputian hallucination described under visual hallucination, in which tiny figures are seen where nothing real is present, rather than a real object being misjudged in size. A visual hallucination, by contrast, ranges from unformed flashes to fully detailed scenes with no corresponding real stimulus at all. Whether a genuine object is present and simply misjudged, or nothing real corresponds to what is seen, is the key distinguishing feature.