Irlen Syndrome difficult to diagnose

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Though commonly mistaken for dyslexia or other reading problems, Irlen Syndrome makes reading and concentration difficult for numerous people around the world. Not only does Irlen Syndrome make reading a challenge, concentration and attention span is limited and headaches, fatigue, nausea and mental exhaustion are also commonplace issues people living with Irlen Syndrome face daily.

Little understood and difficult to diagnose, Irlen Syndrome is often overlooked by medical and psychiatric professionals. Understanding the differences between commonly diagnosed reading and attention disorders and Irlen Syndrome may help empower people to better inform their healthcare providers about their condition and get the diagnosis and treatment they need to navigate daily life more easily and fluidly. Better yet, current treatment protocols for Irlen Syndrome are holistic, cost effective and successfully used by people of all ages without side effects, drug dependency and other negative consequences.

What is Irlen Syndrome?

Irlen Syndrome, also known as scotopic sensitivity syndrome (SSS), Meares-Irlen syndrome, asfedia or visual stress, is a condition of the central nervous system and eyes that interferes with the interaction of light on a physiological level. While the syndrome is most pronounced during reading, it can negatively impact other activities as well. Irlen Syndrome makes everyday tasks difficult since the perception and processing of text and other information is disordered.

For people living with Irlen Syndrome, text often becomes animated as it swirls, moves and merges together or drifts apart making it impossible to read and understand. Focusing on high contrast imagery is also difficult for people with Irlen Syndrome making reading difficult as text is often printed in black on white paper. Trying to read, focus on images and other normal tasks takes extreme concentration and focus for people living with Irlen Syndrome and can lead to headaches, eye strain and other uncomfortable and distracting side effects.

History and Research

In 1980, a teacher from New Zealand named Oliver Meares described the difficulties and abnormalities reported by some people when they read things printed on white paper. Shortly after Meares described the problem, American psychologist Helen Irlen authored a paper in 1983 about the benefits of using coloured overlays to help improve the reading abilities of some people with reading difficulties.

While both Meares and Irlen were unaware of the work being done by the other, they both reported many of the same symptoms, problems and issues encountered by people with reading and visual difficulties and abnormalities. Irlen was the first to define the condition systematically and called it scotopic sensitivity.

Irlen Syndrome has been researched by numerous institutions around the world. Research in Cambridge, England, Glasgow, Scotland, Sydney and New Castle, Australia and throughout numerous places in the United States has failed to shed much insight on the syndrome, what causes it and a definitively superior way to treat it. However, research continues and there is a growing interest within the Irlen Syndrome research community surrounding inappropriate biochemical processing and its role in visual perception and/or psychological problems.

The theory is based on the idea that because the signals from the eye experience a delay in their delivery to the brain, the brain is getting a confused image. An analogy frequently used in Irlen research is that of the brain getting a picture from the eye that is double exposed. The brain then tries to clarify and decipher the faulty image message and attempts to filter good information from bad. This over-processing results in the brain delivering a reconstructed image to the conscious mind. The constant reconstruction performed by the brain can cause the images to appear to be moving, blur, merge together or appear to have spaces and gaps in the wrong spots. The constant reconfiguration by the brain can also cause eye strain, headaches and mental exhaustion and seems to be compounded when highly contrasting colours are involved.

Current treatment involves helping the individual avoid the problem by filtering out problematic light waves with lenses and overlays. Filtering these wavelengths eliminates the need for the brain to continually process and reconfigure images and distinguish between “good” and “bad” information. More research is needed to fully understand the mechanics of Irlen Syndrome and how to best treat it and research is ongoing in universities, hospitals and clinics around the world.

What Causes Irlen Syndrome?

Medical research shows that Irlen Syndrome is caused by defects in one of the visual pathways that carries messages from the eye to the brain. Because the pathway and route to the brain is defective, there is a timing fault in the processing of visual information. This defect and resulting faulty visual pathway negatively impacts an individual’s visual fluency, accuracy, comprehension and flow. Irlen syndrome is a perceptual processing disorder, not a problem of the eye or the brain’s ability to process information. Because of its perceptual nature, Irlen Syndrome cannot be diagnosed by standardized educational tests or medical exams. The perceptual nature of the syndrome also makes it difficult to pinpoint the exact origin and cause of the condition.

Affected Individuals

According to research done by the Irlen Foundation, it is estimated that up to 50% of people with reading, attention and learning problems are afflicted with Irlen. Additionally, there seems to be a genetic component that comes into play with Irlen. Studies of 751 children diagnosed with Irlen showed that 84% of them had at least one parent with Irlen Syndrome as well. This high percentage is a strong indication that Irlen Syndrome runs in families and can be passed from generation to generation.

Research also shows that 33% of people diagnosed with attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder also respond well to Irlen treatment. This may indicate a link between the inability to correctly process light and an inability to focus. Irlen Method treatment has been successful in treating people with these attention deficit disorders without the use of potentially harmful and addicting drugs.

Symptoms of Irlen Syndrome

There are a number of symptoms that can indicate the presence of Irlen Syndrome. For people living with Irlen, one or more of these symptoms may be present:

* migraines

* fatigue

* headaches

* eye strain

* difficulties with concentration and attention

* text that appears to swirl, rise, fall or otherwise move

* epileptic seizures brought on by strobing or pattern glare

* nausea and motion sickness

* depth perception problems

* restricted field of view

* restricted span of recognition

* discomfort in places using fluorescent lighting sources

* visual stress and discomfort when viewing busy patterns, especially stripped patterns

* discomfort viewing things with heavy contrast between dark and light, commonly viewed as back-lighting

* losing text content when reading and seeing only the white spaces between text as a river of white

* seeing only parts of text or images and losing the whole

* words merging together to become one long, unreadable jumble of text

* difficulty copying text

* discomfort reading, especially black text on shiny, white paper

As you can see, people living with Irlen Syndrome face numerous challenges simply doing the everyday tasks associated with navigating normal life. Reading for information, directions or pleasure can be a daunting chore making it difficult to have a “normal” life.

Irlen Syndrome Treatment and Solutions

Current treatments for Irlen include the Irlen Method and the use of cursors. In the Irlen Method, tinted lenses and coloured overlays are used in the form of glasses or contact lenses in an effort to reduce or eliminate the processing errors in visual perception. It is believed that filtering out certain wavelengths of light with coloured lenses can help to correct the faulty pathway from the eye to the brain. While the Irlen Method has been used and prescribed by many doctors, the efficacy of the treatment is debated and not all medical experts agree that it is the best available option.

Another treatment option for Irlen Syndrome has been devised by The Promethean Trust, a non profit charity created to help assist children with dyslexia. Using a simple paper or plastic device the shape and size of a credit card with a notch cut out of one corner, the reader uses the card as a cursor when reading. Moving the cursor over the paper allows the reader to follow the words revealed by the notch while keeping other text hidden so the eye does not jump ahead, combine words or otherwise distort the text. This simple, effective and economical method is often extremely helpful for people with Irlen and does not require a prescription or expensive lenses making it an accessible treatment option for anyone living with Irlen to try.

Irlen Syndrome poses unique challenges in both the diagnosis of and treatment for people living with the disorder. With more research and study, uncovering the root cause of the perceptual abnormality and how to most effectively treat it may be discovered and provide help to the many people struggling with Irlen Syndrome around the world.

By Dr Sajad Al-Abdali

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