Visual dysfunction

A wide range of ocular signs and symptoms occur in ME/CFS. These include eye pain, photophobia (light sensitivity), visual processing problems, floaters and spots, tearing, dry eyes, poor focus, double vision, scotomata, blurred vision, tunnel vision, night blindness, depth-of-field loss, nystagmus, and early cataracts.

Prevalence

 * 2001, In a Belgian study, 74.4% of patients meeting the Fukuda criteria and 77.2% of patients meeting the Holmes criteria, in a cohort of 2073 CFS patients, reported a problems with visual accuity.

Notable studies

 * 1992, Ocular Manifestations of Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome
 * 1994, Survey of the Ocular Manifestations of Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome
 * 1994, The ocular signs and symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome
 * 2000, Ocular manifestations in chronic fatigue syndrome
 * 2003, Pathology of the organ of vision in chronic fatigue syndrome
 * 2013, Characterising eye movement dysfunction in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome
 * 2013, Patterns of abnormal visual attention in myalgic encephalomyelitis
 * 2014, Vision-related symptoms as a clinical feature of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis? Evidence from the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire (Abstract)
 * 2015, Increased Vulnerability to Pattern-Related Visual Stress in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
 * 2016, Binocular Vision in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
 * 2018, Restricted Spatial Windows of Visibility in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)
 * 2018, Visual aspects of reading performance in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) (Abstract)

Learn more

 * Visual Stress: A Symptom of ME/CFS
 * Visual stress could be a symptom of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, research suggests