Again, this is why I asked the last time I posted to this list, if there
were any objections to the previous article I forwarded then, which was a
similar article about the eyes, Actually about a kind of corneal treatment
for severe myopia. So, if any list members object, just ask me to stop,
and
I will. --Louis
-----Original Message-----
From: nhab-tech-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:nhab-tech-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Ray Carette
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 12:39 PM
To: nhab-tech@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [nhab-tech] Re: Charles Bonnet Syndrome
Although I fail to see what this article has to do with tech, I have to
admit I find this article interesting none-the-less.
On 11/11/14, gosselin_louis <gosselin_louis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
THE NEW OLD AGE. The Brain Can Fool the Eyes.
NY Times Tuesday, 2014_11_11
By PAULA SPAN. A few days after I wrote about conditions that can
mimic dementia, reader Sue Murray emailed me from Westchester County.
Her subject
line: 'Have you heard of Charles Bonnet Syndrome?
I hadn't, and until about six months ago, neither had Ms. Murray..
Her mother Elizabeth, who is 91, has glaucoma and macular
degeneration, and has been gradually losing her vision, Ms. Murray
explained. So at first, her family was excited when Elizabeth seemed
to be seeing things more clearly.
Maybe, they thought, her vision was returning.
But the things she was seeing -- patterns and colors, strangers, a
green man
-- weren't there. She insisted that 'there were people in the cellar,
people on the porch, people in the house,' Ms. Murray said. 'She'd
point and say, 'Don't you see them? And she'd get mad when we didn't.
Elizabeth and her husband Victor, 95, live in Connecticut, in a house
they bought 50 years ago. For a while, the Green Man, as Elizabeth
began calling him, seemed to have moved in, too. 'She'd start hiding
things in the closet so the Green Man wouldn't take them,' Ms. Murray
said. 'There wasn't any real fear; it was just, 'Look at that!
Elizabeth's ophthalmologist promptly supplied the name for this
condition:
Charles Bonnet Syndrome, named for a Swiss philosopher who described
such visual hallucinations in the 18th century. 'We were relieved,' said
Ms.
Murray. What they feared, of course, was mental illness or dementia.
'To have an eye doctor say, 'I'm familiar with this,' it's still
jarring but it's not so terrible.
Bonnet Syndrome (pronounced Boh-NAY) isn't terribly rare, it turns out.
Oliver Sacks described several cases in his 2012 book, 'Hallucinations.
Dr.
Abdhish Bhavsar, a clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of
Ophthalmology and a retina specialist in Minneapolis, estimates that
he has probably seen about 200 patients with the syndrome over 17
years of practice.
Like Mrs. Murray's mother, his patients with Bonnet Syndrome have
reduced vision -- usually age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma or
cataracts.
Various European studies have found that approximately 10 to 15
percent of older adults with low vision or macular degeneration
develop the condition; some studies have found higher rates.
But with about 2.1 million Americans over age 50 suffering from
macular degeneration alone, that's a lot of people seeing things.
'The numbers are all across the board,' said Dr. Bhavsar, who thinks
the rate of Bonnet Syndrome is closer to 10 percent among those with
low vision.
But since these eye diseases occur more often in older adults, whose
numbers are increasing, ophthalmologists will be seeing more cases --
if patients aren't too fearful to tell their doctors or families what
is going on.
'They want to know if they're going crazy, and we say, 'Absolutely
not, you are not losing your marbles,' Dr. Bhavsar told me in an
interview.
'Dispelling that, saying it's a known phenomenon with a name and that
nothing else is wrong with them, they immediately feel relieved. Even
if, like one patient, they continue to see squirrels popping out of the
ground.
The hallucinations, he explained, can occur intermittently -- a few
times a day or weeks apart -- or nearly constantly. They can last
seconds or minutes. Frequently they dissipate in a year to 18 months, but
not always.
(Most respondents to a recent British survey said their hallucinations
had lasted for more than five years, and roughly a third said they had
experienced fear and some loss of normal activities. That the surveys
were distributed to members of a national vision charity might have
influenced those findings.) The problem doesn't originate in people's
eyes, but in their brains, which appear to misinterpret the reduced
visual signals. The hallucinations are purely visual; someone who also
hears things has something other than Bonnet.
Though there is no effective treatment, most of his patients cope
reasonably well, Dr. Bhavsar said. Some are amused by what they call
their own private movies. Counseling at low-vision rehabilitation
centers can help people adjust.
Silence isn't golden in these cases. Seeing an ophthalmologist won't
stop people from seeing patterns, animals and faces, but it can
provide reassurance that they are not facing diseases most people find
much scarier.
One Minnesota internist thought his elderly patient had schizophrenia
and was on the verge of prescribing psychotropic meds until he consulted
Dr.
Bhavsar, who explained about Bonnet Syndrome.
In Connecticut, where Sue Murray and her siblings work hard to keep
their parents at home, the bizarre has become fairly normal. There is
not much to do but wait it out.
The Green Man has stopped showing up, 'but there's a woman now and my
mother's convinced she's after my father,' Ms. Murray said. 'She says,
'That woman's here. I say, 'Tell her to go away. The Green Man is gone
and we're hoping the rest will disappear, too.
Paula Span is the author of 'When the Time Comes: Families With Aging
Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.
This is a more complete version of the story than the one that
appeared in print..
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