Parkinson's disease and vision

Background: In Parkinson's disease (PD), visual signs and symptoms as part of sensory dysfunction are a common complaint that leads to a significant decrease in the vision related quality of life. However, they remain under-reported, under-recognized and poorly understood. In this review we wish to give a systematic overview about the published data about vision and PD. We performed a bibliographic research on an international medical literature database (PUBMED) of studies in English language published until April 2013. We specifically addressed visual symptoms and signs with retinal and ocular origin as well as their prevalence, pathophysiology and treatment. Our research indicates that PD is associated with a wide range of visual symptoms. The prevalence of all visual symptoms contains about 78%. Common complaints are a decrease in contrast insensitivity and colour discrimination as well as problems with visualspatial misperceptions, blink rate, blepharospasm, occular movements, diplopia, pain, visual field defects and visual hallucinations. The treatment is limited and the management complex. Visual problems in PD occur with varying frequency and many remain unreported and need special testing. The impact of these problems on the health-related quality of life of patients with PD is not yet well established and time has come to address these issues with further research and development for instance of a validated clinical/bedside tool for assessment of visual function in PD. (C) 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.