Godts, Daisy, Moorkens, Greta, Mathysen, Danny G P · The American orthoptic journal · 2016 · DOI
This study found that people with ME/CFS have differences in how their eyes work together compared to healthy people. Specifically, ME/CFS patients had weaker ability to focus both eyes on nearby objects, reduced eye convergence (bringing eyes together to focus), and a smaller range of accommodation (adjusting focus from far to near). The researchers suggest that ME/CFS patients may benefit from reading glasses or vision exercises earlier than other people.
This is the first systematic study documenting specific binocular vision abnormalities in ME/CFS, providing objective evidence of a previously undocumented physiological feature of the illness. Identifying these vision changes may help clinicians recognize ME/CFS, guide earlier intervention with corrective measures, and open new avenues for understanding the neurological basis of the condition.
This study does not establish whether vision abnormalities are a primary feature of ME/CFS or a secondary consequence of other physiological changes. It does not prove that convergence exercises will effectively treat these vision problems or improve ME/CFS symptoms, nor does it explain the underlying biological mechanism causing these changes. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causation or temporal relationships.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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