Prism vs. Prozac

Could the cause of your dizziness, headache, anxiety be coming from your eyes? Many people who suffer from these symptoms have a relatively unknown binocular vision disorder called vertical heterophoria. Symptoms can also include light sensitivity, neck ache, head tilt, facial pain, unsteady feeling while walking, and motion sickness.  Patients often have gone to neurologists, ENT, ophthalmologists, etc.  When all testing comes our normal they are sent to a psychiatrist. The good news is that this can be treated with the proper  prismatic correction in a simple pair of glasses.

I came to learn about this condition while reading an optometric journal about Dr. Debby Feinberg.  People travel from all over the world to be seen by Dr. Debby. ( Just google her. She is called the headache guru of Michigan.) She is currently doing research with the pain management specialists at the University of Michigan and has been published in a number of medical journals.  I thought her work was so interesting that I emailed her.  I am proud to say that I am one of the first doctors in the country trained in her very specific and effective technique to diagnosis and treat this condition.

I will be posting different case histories here so people can read about others with VH.  Today, I will talk about one of my most gratifying cases. A woman who came to me for a routine eye exam complaining of headaches around her eyes.  She was told that she had sinus headaches for the past 29 years. The pain started 29 years ago when her son was born. (Often, symptoms begin after a major stress on the body such as pregnancy, illness, or brain injury.)  I started asking her other questions and had her fill out a vertical heterophoria symptom questionnaire. This questionnaire helps to determine if the symptoms are caused by a vision problem. She scored very high.  After a month of wearing  prism prescription glasses she came for her follow up visit a new person. She reported that her "sinus headaches" were gone. It was her eyes all along. She started to cry and gave me a hug.

In the future, I will describe other cases and discuss the different ways this subset of binocular vision disorders develop in detail.  Please feel free to contact me at drcbisraeloff@gmail.com if you think you may be suffering from VH.