For
some completely inexplicable reason, MT won't let me reply to the
comment under my last post. But I can still post posts, so
here is the question and the answer:
Q: Wow, is this serious? I have amblyopia, and would
really, really love to get some of my vision back. In part because it's
a pain in the butt, but also because I have a cavernous angioma in the
left side of my brainstem that affects my balance. My neurologist has
told me that I would have fewer problems if my right-eye (the weak one)
were better.
Interestingly, I have been taking benzos for neuropathy and ataxia
(clonazepam and diazepam), and also took gabapentine for a while, which
is sort-of-synthetic GABA. What's the next step? How can I try and get
better? Would it be simply a matter of patching the good eye for a
while every day to "awaken" the bad eye? I know this might not be your
field, but how can I found out more about this?
Thanks!
Posted by: Kirk | May 4, 2007 11:43 AM
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">A:
You are right, neuroophthalmology is not my field. I am not
sure that there is much more information out there. This
link, the one in the post,
http://www.nei.nih.gov/news/pressreleases/041105.asp
probably points you to the most pertinent information, because it was a
study done on humans.
Unfortunately, findings on rodent experiments often don't really tell
us what we would like to know; and often, the experiments would not be
ethical to perform on humans.
In this context, note that the Valium was infused directly onto the rat
brain. To what extent does that mimic oral doses of Valium in
a human? Impossible to tell.
If you were to try to improve your vision with exercises, all I could
do would be to give advice based on theoretical considerations, which
may not have any validity whatsoever.
Having said that, you would want to patch the good eye, and stimulate
the bad eye specifically with things that are novel, salient, and that
includes lots of horizontal lines. (It is the ability to
recognize the horizon that helps with balance.) Would it be
worthwhile to spend time on this? I can't say.
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I too HAD amblyopia and had poor vision in my right eye and no depth perception. I heard an NPR piece about vision therapy last summer - a woman acquired 3D vision in a matter of weeks. I located a developmental optometrist who practiced Vision Therapy locally and started treatment last August. I had 3-D vision in 5 weeks. My overall vision is enormously better. My "bad eye" has a weaker prescription. Do not patch the bad eye. You need to train your brain to use both eyes at the same time or your brain will shut out the weak eye. It takes time, but you will see continuous improvement.
http://www.visiontherapy.org/
Having read the visiontherapy dot org front page I must say that I can neither endorse nor refute anything it says, except for the last part, which is something I should have thought to mention: the any attempt to treat the problem should start with a thorough exam.
Great comment guidelines. I think youre on the right track here. Some of those comments should go somewhere else.
Normally, lazy eye effects one eye, but once in awhile, both eyes can be effected.
There are several forms of treatment for amblyopia, including surgery and patching. Wearing an eye patch (over the good eye) forces the affected eye to work harder and allow the brain to register images. Wearing a patch is an effective way to recover and gain proper vision in a child. A patch may have to be worn for several hours a day for weeks or months depending on the individual.
For more detail: http://www.eye-patch-info.com/amblyopia.html