when we think of vision problems, alterations that affect focus (myopia, hyperopia) or the various forms of blindness (loss of vision) normally come to mind. However, it is a diverse group of disorders with lesser-known members and more unusual symptoms.
What is it and why does it appear?
One of these changes is the visual snow syndromea disorder characterized by the appearance in the field of vision of small dots similar to snowflakes or television static.
As indicated by the National Institutes of Health of the United States, it often occurs together with other vision problems of a similar nature such as seeing small moving dots in the field of vision (floaters or floaters); seeing other visual images that do not really exist (entopic phenomenon); see glare, halos, light spots, colors and strange shapes, or see double.
To this day, the truth is that it is not entirely clear why it appears. In fact, in the examinations of these patients, doctors do not usually find any problem in the eye, so it is believed that it is purely neurological in nature. For example, it has been theorized that some of the symptoms of the syndrome could be due to neurons responding excessively to visual stimuli, causing image interpretation problems in the brain.
What are your symptoms?
Be that as it may, and beyond the appearance of referred white dots (which can be constant or intermittent, and in one or both eyes), visual snow syndrome is a complex entity with other associated symptoms of a diverse nature.
Thus, patients may experience increased sensitivity to light (photophobia), permanence of images that are no longer in the field of vision (palinopsia), difficulty seeing at night or in the dark (nyctalopia), entoptic phenomena, pain headache, migraine (with or without aura), fatigue, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), tremors, balance problems, vertigo, anxiety, depression, depersonalization or derealization.
How is it treated?
Today There is no treatment as such for this syndrome., but there are different medicines that can reduce symptoms in some people (without being effective in all cases). For example, some anticonvulsants such as lamotrigine may be effective; drugs used to treat glaucoma such as acetozalamide, some drugs used to control blood pressure, such as verapamil; or some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
On the other hand, some patients experience some improvement with the use of a specific type of tinted lenses (colorimetric lenses), and it may be necessary to treat some complications such as anxiety or depressive disorders.