Vision therapy: are you kidding me? Problems with current studies

Abstract

Background and purpose: Orthoptic exercises are routinely prescribed to treat symptoms of convergence insufficiency (CI). The type and duration of treatment tends to vary among providers as until recently, few strong randomized control studies have addressed the efficacy of convergence insufficiency management. The aim of this paper is to address these studies and discuss their limitations.

Methods: A review of the literature pertaining to convergence insufficiency was conducted. Articles relevant to the treatment of this disorder were analyzed, and those with adequate studies pertaining to CI treatment methods were included.

Results: There are limited randomized control trials evaluating the effectiveness of vision therapy, and those that do exist have limitations: small patient populations, differing outcome measures, treatment length and intensity, and placebo effects, which are all confounding factors when assessing the validity of the current studies.

Conclusion: Despite the prevalence of convergence insufficiency, the known efficacy of vision therapy remains somewhat questionable. There is evidence to suggest that some form of therapy is effective in reducing symptoms and clinical findings of convergence insufficiency, but there is a lack of equal comparison in order to conclude which forms of treatment are best.