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 →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Godts, Daisy, Moorkens, Greta, & Mathysen, Danny G P (2016). Binocular Vision in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.. The American orthoptic journal. https://doi.org/10.3368/aoj.66.1.92
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-godts-2016-binocular-vision,
author = {Godts, Daisy and Moorkens, Greta and Mathysen, Danny G P},
title = {Binocular Vision in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.},
journal = {The American orthoptic journal},
year = {2016},
doi = {10.3368/aoj.66.1.92},
note = {PubMed: 27799582},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/godts-2016-binocular-vision},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/godts-2016-binocular-vision
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