According to a recent study published in the BBC News, doctors at McGill University in Montreal, say they have found that tetris cure amblyopia adults. In a small study with 18 adults, the Tetris game has worked more effectively than traditional patches. Playing video games is more effective because it causes the eyes to work together.
Doctors hope that the game Tetris will treat amblyopia in adults and also in children. This eye condition characterized by poor vision in one eye, which is caused by a problem in brain development.
Current treatment is to prevent the healthy eye to see, forcing the weaker eye to work. This eye condition that begins in childhood, reaching 3-5% of people. If amblyopia is not treated it can lead to permanent loss of vision in the eye.
Dr. Robert Hess and colleagues from Montreal conducted the study with two groups of nine adults with amblyopia. The first group played Tetris all day for an hour for a period of two weeks. The second group played Tetris for the same period of time, but used the “method of traditional patch” where they put a blindfold over their good eye’s. Vision of the first group was significantly improved by the fact that both eyes working together.
In response to the results of the study, Hess said: “When the two eyes work together, we found that the vision improves” With the positive results of the study, the doctors who conducted the study, said that a number of video games could work other than Tetris.
Although this is a very small sample size, this study reveals interesting for further studies.
Incredibly comfortable wink!
I would be interested in taking a study for amblyopia if there are any running in england.
i also suffer from amblyopia and live in south africa where it is believed that there is no help for amblyopic payients please help cause i really want to help my eyes as my proffession requires good eyesight
This is an interesting study. I would like to know further details about the patients:
1) Visual acuity in either eye at the start of therapy.
2) How much Visual improvement occurred in the amblyopic eye.
3) What was the duration and cost of the therapy.
Regards
Mrs Irfan,
Those are very interesting questions and I am sure they would provide a more complete perspective on this research and its implications.
Unfortunately, we have been trying the reach the researchers behind it for a while now and we were unable to talk to them…
I am a 29 year old male and I was diagnosed with amblyopia around 12. However, I refused to do the patch treatment at that time. Mainly because I feared humiliation and doctors said it was more than likely too late anyways.
I recently read that rTMS (repetative transcranial magnetic stimulation), which is usually used for people with depression, headaches, and/or anxiety, may be a temporary solution for us amblyopics.
I’ve had lazy eye since 4 years of age. I had the eye patch treatment and I had to do dot to dot books for hours. The patch was on all day and only taken off at night. My eyesight improved in my teens but recently (I’m 45 now) it has been going downhill so fast that I’ve had to have a couple of pairs of glasses made in the last 3 years to keep up and still my eyesight is getting worse. I’m tired all of the time due to eye ache which makes a huge impact on my life. Please keep on with the research. We are so grateful and I look forward to hearing about any improvements in the future.
Extremely sorry to hear about the recent reappearance of your condition… Thank you Sharon for sharing your story. We wish you all the best.
I have the same issue. I wore eye patches as a child all day long for years. Now I’m 44 and very scared to loose my sight. Even my ‘good’ eye is getting worse and I found out that the optical nerve is big in my good eye. That scared me so much. Is there any vision therapy for my age? I live in the US. My 3 year old son is currently undergoing eye patching. I cried for days đ
I believe my amblyopic condition was brought on by a direct hit to the face when I was 6 , I struggled with math and right -brained activities . Back in the 70s they could not figure what was wrong . When I used to populate circuit boards at an electronics company , I had to redundantly recheck everything . It took me twice as long to do half the work and they thought I was lazy as hell when I worked my arse off -I didn’t get a handle on math and other things to later in to high school and I didn’t have very good 3D vision till about 2008 when I saw an Imax movie . I also believe that google glass has helped me somewhat . Has anyone done research into direct stimulation of the visual cortex to improve it? The funny thing about my amblyopia is that I seem to be a good pilot regardless . I really think you should look into google glass, it seems to be a viable treatment and there are games as well as information. I have to get my waiver from the FAA to get a higher class medical if I want to fly tankers and do crop dusting or aerial fire fighting , I am no scientist but I have often wondered , what if there were a chip we could implant a chip in the visual cortex to correct this condition?
I believe my amblyopic condition was brought on by a direct hit to the face when I was 6 , I struggled with math and right -brained activities . Back in the 70s they could not figure what was wrong . When I used to populate circuit boards at an electronics company , I had to redundantly recheck everything . It took me twice as long to do half the work and they thought I was lazy as hell when I worked my arse off -I didnât get a handle on math and other things to later in to high school and I didnât have very good 3D vision till about 2008 when I saw an Imax movie . I also believe that google glass has helped me somewhat . Has anyone done research into direct stimulation of the visual cortex to improve it? The funny thing about my amblyopia is that I seem to be a good pilot regardless . I really think you should look into google glass, it seems to be a viable treatment and there are games as well as information. I have to get my waiver from the FAA to get a higher class medical if I want to fly tankers and do crop dusting or aerial fire fighting , I am no scientist but I have often wondered , what if there were a chip we could implant a chip in the visual cortex to correct this condition?
Hello! I was born with amblyopia, but never realized it until I was 12 years old. I don’t know how it happened, but up until that point I always thought it was normal to have one eye that was much better than the other. We tried patching my eye or dilating it in order to try to improve my vision, but no major changes happened. If there are any studies still going on I would love to be a part of it. Please let me know!
Harnessing technology to help strabismus/amblyopia:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31721672
Should I wear only 3D glasses while playing lazy eye games or both 3D glasses alongwith power glasses. my number is zero in left eye and 4 number with 50 degree in right eye.
Thanks and regards