Question:
My husband has Parkinson’s Disease and has trouble seeing. The ophthalmologist told him he had extremely dry eyes due to his Parkinson’s because people with this condition have trouble blinking enough to lubricate their eyes. She advised him to use eye drops several times a day to see if it helps. Do you think this is true? Answer:
Parkinson’s disease can affect vision in many ways.
A slower blink can cause symptoms of a dry eye and loss of vision due to a poor quality tear film.
Treatment is usually lubricating drops initially.
However, there are many other causes of visual loss, visual fatigue and reading difficulty in Parkinson’s disease.
Parkinson’s disease can affect the extraocular motility making eye tracking, such as is required during reading, much more difficult.
Some patients may have perfect vision but still have great difficulty reading because of this.
Optic neuropathy or a deterioration of the optic nerve has been seen in Parkinson’s disease as well.
Also, in the older age groups all of the non- Parkinson’s causes for visual loss should be eliminated on exam such as cataract, glaucoma and macular degeneration.
Answered by:
Gary Hirshfield, MD
Categories:
Eye Conditions; General Eye Health
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