Көз жаттығулары арқылы көруді жақсартуға бағытталған балама медицина әдісі

Alternative medicine treatment using eye exercises aimed at improving sight

Vision therapy (VT), or behavioral optometry, is an umbrella term for alternative medicine treatments using eye exercises, based around the pseudoscientific claim that vision problems are the true underlying cause of learning difficulties, particularly in children.

Vision therapy is based on the proposition that many learning disabilities in children are based on vision problems, and that these can be cured by performing eye exercises. Vision therapy lacks sound evidence, has been characterized as a pseudoscience and its practice as quackery. Vision therapy is a broad concept that encompasses a wide range of treatment types.

There is no good evidence that vision therapy of any benefit in treating learning disabilities, reading, dyslexia, or ADHD, although there is some evidence that it may help treat convergence insufficiency in healthy people. A review in 2000 concluded that there were insufficient controlled studies of the approach. There is no good evidence supporting the use of vision therapy in the rehabilitation of patients with mild traumatic brain injury, although it may be useful for the treatment of post traumatic convergence insufficiency and accommodative insufficiency.

There exist a few different broad classifications of vision treatment philosophies, which have been traditionally divided between optometrists, ophthalmologists, and practitioners of alternative medicine. Orthoptic vision therapy, also known as orthoptics, is a field pertaining to the evaluation and treatment of patients with disorders of the visual system with an emphasis on binocular vision and eye movements. Commonly practiced by orthoptists, optometrists, behavioral optometrists, pediatric ophthalmologists, and general ophthalmologists, traditional orthoptics addresses problems of eye strain, visually induced headaches, strabismus, diplopia and visual related skills required for reading. Behavioral vision therapy, or visual integration vision therapy (also known as behavioral optometry). There have been a number of alternative vision therapy approaches which have not been studied in traditional or evidence based medicine. They are commonly provided by unlicensed professionals, although a minority of optometrists also provide them. These methods are commonly under scrutiny by ophthalmological and optometric journals for lack of proven effectiveness.

Orthoptics emphasises the diagnosis and non surgical management of strabismus (wandering eye), amblyopia (lazy eye), and eye movement disorders. Evidence to support its use in amblyopia is unclear as of 2011. Much of the practice of orthoptists concerns refraction and muscular eye control. Orthoptists are trained professionals who specialize in orthoptic treatment. With specific training, in some countries orthoptists may be involved in monitoring some forms of eye disease, such as glaucoma, cataract screening, and diabetic retinopathy.

Behavioral vision therapy (BVT) aims to treat problems including difficulties of visual attention and concentration, which behavioral optometrists classify as visual information processing weaknesses. These manifest themselves as an inability to sustain focus or to shift focus from one area of space to another. Some practitioners assert that poor eye tracking may impact reading skills, and suggest that vision training may improve some of the visual skills helpful for reading. Behavioral vision therapy is practiced primarily by optometrists who specialize in the area. Historically, there has been some difference in philosophy among optometry and medicine regarding the efficacy and relevance of vision therapy, although none support its use in treating learning disorders. Major organizations, including the International Orthoptic Association and the American Academy of Ophthalmology, have concluded that there is no validity for clinically significant improvements in vision with BVT, and therefore do not practice it.

Behavioral optometry is largely based on concepts that lack plausibility or which contradict mainstream neurology, and most of the research done has been of poor quality. As with chiropractic, there seems to be a spectrum of scientific legitimacy among practitioners: at one extreme there is some weak evidence in support of the idea that myopia may be affected by eye training; In 2008 Barrett concluded that "the continued absence of rigorous scientific evidence to support behavioural management approaches, and the paucity of controlled trials, in particular, represents a major challenge to the credibility of the theory and practice of behavioural optometry."

Practitioners of sports vision training claim to be able to enhance the function of an athlete's vision beyond what is expected in individuals with already healthy visual systems.

Various forms of eye exercises have been used for centuries. The concept of orthoptics was introduced in the late nineteenth century for the non surgical treatment of strabismus. This early and traditional form of vision therapy was the foundation of what is now known as orthoptics and was based on observation not research or evidence. In the first half of the twentieth century, orthoptists, working with ophthalmologists, introduced a variety of training techniques mainly designed to improve ocular alignment. In the second half of the twentieth century, vision therapy began to be used by specially trained optometrists to treat conditions ranging from uncomfortable vision (asthenopia), ocular motor skills, focusing control, binocular vision, depth perception, eye hand coordination and visual processing. These treatments have been demonstrated to help many patients with poor reading and academic performance caused by their vision. There are many unscientific techniques promoted commercially and claimed specifically to improve eyesight and even to improve athletic performance. A. M. Skeffington was an American optometrist known to some as "the father of behavioral optometry". Skeffington has been credited as co founding the Optometric Extension Program with E. B. Alexander in 1928.