What are the treatment and management options for visual impairment?
Treatment and management of visual impairment include (1-6): Control of diabetes – This prevents progression of diabetic retinopathy and resulting visual impairment to some extent. However in advanced cases this may be of little help.
Is patching the best treatment for amblyopia?
It is the most traditional and widely used treatment of amblyopia, though opinions vary widely on its application. Patching may be instituted at the time of amblyopia diagnosis or after a trial period of glasses alone. The dosing of patching has historically varied greatly among practitioners.
What are the ocular alterations that predispose to amblyopia?
The main ocular alterations that predispose to amblyopia are deprivation of visual stimuli (pupil occlusion by ptosis, opacities of optical media, nystagmus, and many others), alteration of sharpness of visual stimuli by refractive changes (high ametropia and/or anisometropia), and non-corresponding images received by each eye (strabismus).
Should we continue researching the effects of visual art modalities?
Perhaps the most convincing piece of evidence in support of continued research can be found in the self-report measures collected by investigators. Participants overwhelmingly endorsed a positive subjective impact of the treatments incorporating visual art modalities.
What type of therapy is vision therapy?
Vision Therapy is a behavioral approach to correcting various eye problems that affect one's ability to receive and process visual information.
What is done in vision therapy?
Vision therapy is a program that aims to improve a person's visual abilities. It uses a variety of ways – such as eye exercises, testing, occlusion (patching) lenses and prisms – to treat a range of visual problems. Vision therapy may be used to treat problems such as: amblyopia (lazy eye)
What is vision therapy and how does it work?
Vision therapy consists of personalized exercises that make use of lenses, prisms, filters, occluders, and other equipment— aimed at developing visual skills and efficiently processing information from the visual system.
What is light therapy for vision?
Light Therapy, also known as Syntonics or optometric phototherapy, is the use of specific frequencies of visible light projected into the eyes, to enhance visual efficiency and visual information processing.
What is eye therapy called?
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a fairly new, nontraditional type of psychotherapy. It's growing in popularity, particularly for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
What is vision therapy for adults?
Vision Therapy is an individualized, supervised, treatment program designed to correct visual-motor and/or perceptual-cognitive deficiencies. Vision Therapy sessions include procedures designed to enhance the brain's ability to control: eye alignment. eye teaming.
How long does it take for vision therapy to work?
How Long Does It Take to See Results with Vision Therapy? It's important to note that the goal of vision therapy is to improve functionality, not complete recovery. For certain adults, gains can be experienced fairly soon. For others, it may take up to 6 months or more to realize significant results.
Does vision therapy help strabismus?
Vision Therapy — strabismus treatment without surgery; with or without corrective lenses — is the most effective and non-invasive treatment for Strabismus. In a Vision Therapy program, eye exercises, lenses, and/or other therapy activities are used to treat the brain and nervous system which control the eye muscles.
Can adults benefit from vision therapy?
YES. Vision therapy is often just as effective for adults as it is for children. Adults can succeed with vision therapy as well as children, due to neuro-plasticity. Neuroplasticity enables your brain to remain dynamic and flexible throughout your life.
How do you use syntonic light therapy?
The typical treatment for syntonics requires a patient to sit in a darkened room and view a circle of colored light for 20 minutes over a span of 30 sessions. After viewing the light, the patient eventually experiences improved visual skills.
How does IPL help dry eye?
What is IPL treatment? IPL uses gentle pulses of light to treat the underlying causes of dry eye. It's a painless procedure done in an optometrist's office. IPL targets the skin around the eyes, reducing inflammation and any bacterial growth in the area around your eyes.
How long does it take for Syntonic light therapy to work?
Patients typically receive up to 30 sessions of light therapy, and some receive it over the course of one month while others receive it over the course of two or more months depending on the severity of their condition.
What is the treatment for amblyopia?
Occlusion. Occlusion therapy refers to patching the sound eye to stimulate the amblyopic eye. It is the most traditional and widely used treatment of amblyopia, though opinions vary widely on its application. Patching may be instituted at the time of amblyopia diagnosis or after a trial period of glasses alone.
What is the best filter for amblyopia?
Neutral Density Filter. Although not as popular as patching or atropine for the treatment of amblyopia, Bangerter filters (Ryser Optik AF, St. Gallen, Switzerland) placed on the glasses of the non-amblyopic eye may be effective and represent a lower treatment burden compared with patching.
How long does it take for amblyopia to resolve?
Some studies report an average of 14-16 weeks, 3,4 while others report up to 30 weeks and beyond. 3,6 Resolution of amblyopia is related to better baseline visual acuity in the amblyopic eye and smaller amounts of anisometropia. 3 Patients with severe amblyopia will likely require patching.
Why do kids wear eye patches?
When patching is used during school, the child may be subjected to ridicule and the stigma of wearing an eye patch. When used at home, the treatment is often a struggle between the parent and child. The child may view the patch as punishment, and this could potentially damage the parent-child relationship.
Can glasses be used for amblyopia?
While in the past many physicians have instituted occlusion therapy along with spectacles at the time of diagnosis, recent studies have shown that glasses alone can fully treat amblyopia in some patients. When glasses alone do not treat amblyopia fully, patching and atropine penalization are considered.
Is visual plasticity related to age?
Visual plasticity is inversely related to age, therefore treatment at a younger age is more effective. However, studies have shown that occlusion and atropine therapy can be effective in adolescent children, especially if amblyopia has not been previously treated. 1,2.
Is amblyopia a risk?
Treatment of amblyopia is generally low risk with minimal side effects. With any of the recommended treatment modalities, reverse amblyopia is a potential risk. Reverse amblyopia is a decrease in vision of the sound eye as a result of amblyopia therapy. It can occur with both patching and atropine treatment and is usually reversible if discovered in a time. Most clinicians monitor children undergoing amblyopia treatment at least once every 2-3 months, with more frequent monitoring in younger children and those undergoing more intense occlusion regimens.
Policy
Aetna considers visual perceptual training experimental and investigational for the treatment of perceptual dysfunctions and for all other indications (e.g., body dysmorphic disorder, and reading and/or spelling disorders) because its effectiveness has not been validated in well-designed prospective clinical studies.
Background
Visual perceptual training is a psycho-educational intervention that focuses on perceptual dysfunctions that are claimed to contribute to delay in speech and language development in preschool children.
The above policy is based on the following references
Alley GR. Perceptual-motor performances of mentally retarded children after systematic visual-perceptual training. Am J Ment Defic. 1968;73 (2):247-250.
Abstract
Bereaved individuals are increasingly considered at risk for negative psychological and physiological outcomes. Visual art modalities are often incorporated into grief therapy interventions, and clinical application of art therapy techniques with the bereaved has been widely documented.
Introduction
Bereavement is a ubiquitous human experience that often recurs throughout a lifetime. 1 Coping with the death of a loved one is often challenging and can affect bereaved individuals across multifaceted domains.
Materials and methods
This paper reviews and integrates the literature on the therapeutic application of visual art modalities with a bereaved population.
Results
A total of 27 studies met all of the inclusion criteria. Table 1 provides details on the research design, sample composition and demographics, outcomes, and key findings of these studies. The subsequent sections first reviews the studies’ research design characteristics.
Visual art modality
The visual art modalities administered by included studies were heterogeneous. Thirteen (48%) studies evaluated interventions that administered multiple modes of therapeutic visual art techniques.
Discussion
The purpose of this review was to evaluate the extant literature regarding visual art therapy techniques with a bereaved clinical population. The number of studies that were relevant to this particular review was limited (n = 27), qualifying the strength of conclusions drawn from key results.
Conclusion
This review examined the clinical effectiveness of using visual art modalities in a therapeutic context with bereaved individuals.
Overview
A person may receive treatment intervention according to one of the DHS-recognized treatment modalities.
Advanced certification requirement
Effective Feb. 1, 2021, all newly enrolling EIDBI provider organizations must have a qualified supervising professional (QSP) or level I provider with advanced certification in one of the treatment modalities listed on this page.
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a set of data-driven practices grounded in behavioral science. This approach can be applied to people of all ages.
Certified providers
For information about provider qualifications, training and locating a provider, see the ABA section of EIDBI – Treatment modalities – Certified providers.
Certified providers
For information about provider qualifications, training and locating a provider, see the DIR/Floortime section of EIDBI – Treatment modalities – Certified providers.
Early Start Denver Model (ESDM)
The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) integrates a relationship-focused, developmental model with Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) teaching practices. The program typically serves children ages 12 to 48 months.
Certified providers
For information about provider qualifications, training and locating a provider, see the ESDM section of EIDBI – Treatment modalities – Certified providers.
How to treat amblyopia?
Treatment. The gold standard treatment for amblyopia is patching the better eye to force the brain to use the weaker eye. Depriving the fellow/fixating eye of vision forces the amblyopic eye to strike suppression and to use the visual cortex corresponding to the eye to recover connections for better vision.
What is the primary dysfunction of the amblyopic visual system?
Now we know that the primary dysfunction within the amblyopic visual system first occurs in area V1, and that the effect caused by amblyopia can be amplified in higher areas of processing. We know that there are significant clinical and functional differences in the patterns of visual loss among the clinically defined categories of amblyopia. Finally, we understand that there appears to be substantial neural plasticity in the amblyopic brain beyond the “critical period,” potentially opening the door to treatment of amblyopia in the teens and into adulthood.
What is the brain area affected by amblyopia?
As shown by several studies, the striate cortex (V1) is the main cortical area affected by amblyopia. Amblyopes have decreased binocular neurons and decreased neurons responsible for the amblyopic eye in V1 in addition to active binocular suppression. 23,30,61,65,83-87
What is anisometropia?
Anisometropic amblyopia. Anisometropia is a difference in the state of refraction of at least 1 diopter between 2 eyes. 40 The prevalence of anisometropic amblyopia is about 4.7% in children and may be myopic, astigmatic, or hypermetropic.
What is the definition of amblyopia?
Amblyopia is clinically defined as reduction of visual acuity in one or both eyes, caused by abnormal binocular interaction during the critical period of visual development, that cannot be attributed to any ocular or visual system abnormality or to refractive error. 1 The American Academy of Ophthalmology considers amblyopia an interocular difference of 2 lines or more in a visual acuity table (without specifying any), or visual acuity worse than or equal to 20/30 with the best optical correction. 2
What is the impact of amblyopia on visual acuity?
Deprivation amblyopia causes profound anatomical changes in visual circuitry and has the greatest impact on visual acuity and all other visual functions. Its treatment is challenging, and results are generally less successful than in other forms of amblyopia. 4,37,39.
Why is amblyopia important?
Since amblyopia is a visual development disorder, early diagnosis of ocular changes associated with amblyopia is crucial for good visual prognosis because it allows treatment to begin at a stage where the visual neurological pathways are still amenable to stimulation, recovery, and reversal of cortical damage.
What are the treatment parameters for PBMT?
These treatment parameters generally had a low irradiance and fluence and worked well for cutaneous applications. However when clinicians began to use PBMT to treat structures that were located deeper in the body, they used these parameters with negative results. A number of negative studies were published and it was concluded that there was inadequate evidence to recommend PBMT for clinical use. We now understand that these negative studies were due to incorrect device and treatment parameters for transcutaneous treatment of deeper structures. Recent advances in laser therapy devices and more research into the appropriate dosages have dramatically improved the results of PBMT. For treating deep tissues, the wavelength of light used determines the depth of penetration into a tissue. In general near-infrared light penetrates more deeply than shorter wavelengths of light such as red light. Therefore, it is important that a clinician uses the appropriate wavelength of light and parameters to treat a condition. One wavelength and one set of treatment parameters will not be effective for all conditions. Negative side effects have not been reported from the use of PBMT.
What is PBMT therapy?
A suggested definition for PBMT is a form of light therapy that utilizes non-ionizing forms of light sources including LASERS, LEDs, and broadband light, in the visible and near infrared spectrum. It is a non-thermal process involving endogenous chromophores eliciting photophysical and photochemical events at various biological scales.
What is PBMT used for?
PBMT is also used to treat the weekend athlete with common sports injuries such as plantar fasciitis, hamstring pulls, and various muscular sprains.
Can PBMT be used for chronic pain?
Before using PBMT treatment to treat acute or chronic pain, a provider must diagnose the condition to confirm that the pain is from a neuromusculoskeletal condition caused by aging or injury and that there is no disqualifying condition or contraindication for laser use.
Types of Visual Impairment
Registering as Visually Impaired
- Those with severe visual impairment may need assistance and the first step may be to register as visually impaired. For this the patient needs to be tested by an ophthalmologist. In the UK a Certificate of Visual Impairment (CVI) is issued to those with visual impairment. The patient is entitled to benefits such as Disability Living Allowance (DLA), tax allowance a disabled person’s …
Considerations For Treatment
- For management for patients some considerations are important (3) – 1. The degree of impairment, disability, or handicap 2. Cause of visual impairment and possible outcome 3. Age of the patient and level of development 4. General health of the patient 5. Patient’s other impairment and adjustment to the vision loss and patient’s expectations from therapy
Treatments For Visual Impairment
- Treatment and management of visual impairment include (1-6): 1. Control of diabetes – This prevents progression of diabetic retinopathy and resulting visual impairment to some extent. However in advanced cases this may be of little help. 2. Cataract surgery – In cases of visual impairment due to cataracts, surgery may be opted. Usually an artificia...
Further Reading