A surprising, yet under reported, fact about ADHD is the prevalence of co-occurring vision problems, particularly Binocular Vision Dysfunction (BVD). There doesn’t seem to be any significant research into vision dysfunction in adults with ADHD, making exact numbers are hard to pin down.* There are many symptom overlaps between ADHD and BVD that can also lead to misdiagnoses (where the wrong cause is identified) and missed diagnoses (where one condition is identified so further investigation halts). Since there is a strong link between the two (both in co-occurrence and misdiagnosis), it could be worth having your vision tested if you have or believe you have ADHD. The aim of this article is to educate in the hopes of helping those who may be needlessly suffering to identify (and treat) the cause.

Binocular Vision Dysfunction refers to disorders that cause a misalignment of stereo vision, either vertical or horizontal heterophoria, caused by weak eye muscles.. A wide range of symptoms present with these disorders, and many of them overlap with ADHD and other similarly presenting disorders. Common symptoms include dizziness, nausea, unsteadiness, motion sickness, double vision, blurred vision, eye pain, headaches, and  face, neck, shoulder, and back pain. Other signs include having poor co-ordination, poor depth perception, frequently losing your place or feeling fatigued when reading, tilting your head, closing one eye to focus, difficulty focusing in conversations, poor sleep patterns, and anxiety in crowds or large spaces.

These vision problems are often missed because they are not tested as a part of routine eye checks, and do not cause a degradation in vision quality. This means it is important to get vision tests regularly, even if you have 20/20 or better vision. If you suspect you have binocular vision dysfunction, make sure to check with your eyecare provider to see if they perform binocular vision tests. You may have to search to find the right provider. Thankfully, if you do have one of these disorders the treatment is simple - glasses with a slight prism effect that performs a visual offset to make up for the different focal points of your eyes so that your brain doesn’t have to perform extra processing. Massive relief may await with one simple fix. For one person with ADHD’s personal story of discovery, check out this article. 

 * A 50% rate of co-occurrence is often recited, yet no study with those findings can be found. While there are a number of studies of children, they show a wide range of occurrence rates; the studies did all show an increase in vision disorders associated with ADHD over the control group. Without better testing practices and further research, providing clear statistics and delineations of symptom presentation cannot be achieved.