Visual snow

Visual snow is a little-known condition in which people see snowor television-staticin their field of vision. Usually the condition worsens in low light conditions or when closing one eye. It is quite similar to the aeropsia seen by HPPDpatients, suggesting an identical underlying cause. However, people who see visual snow do not necessarily have a history of drug use. Instead, the onset has been associated with diverse events, such as stress, LSD/MDMAuse, anti-depressantusage, dehydration, or panic attacks. Some other patients fail to find such an event in their lives, instead saying the snow came out of nowhere or has been with them for their whole life.

People with visual snow often have floatersand some have other visual disturbances as well, like starburst, increased afterimagesand trails. This, and the fact that no physical anomalies are ever found with people complaining of VS, might imply that instead of an illness, visual snow is an entoptic phenomenonthat is noticed mainly by those who are very conscious of their vision. In this respect, it might be comparable to Haidinger's brush.

Because there is little scientific data on the condition, visual snow is rarely diagnosed as such. If the complaints lead to a diagnosis at all, it is often seen as a persistent form of acephalgic migraine.

There currently is no established treatment for visual snow, although some people claim to have benefited from the anti-seizure medicine Clonazepamor from the corticosteroidPrednisone. However, with very little scientific research on the condition taking place, such treatments remain based solely on anecdotal evidence.

External links

• Support Forum For Visual Snow Patientsde:Augenrauschen

nl:Oogruis

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual+snow Wikipedia article Visual snow.