Optometry Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Optometry, including details on myopia, optometric practice, therapy.

Interventions for infantile nystagmus syndrome: towards a randomized controlled trial?

Evans BJ

Institute of Optometry and Department of Optometry and Visual Science, City University, London, SE1 6DS UK. bruce.evans@virgin.net

A PubMed search for papers in the last 10 years on interventions for Infantile Nystagmus Syndrome (INS) reveals 18 papers on surgical or pharmacological interventions and 6 papers describing other interventions. There is only one randomized controlled trial (RCT), with all the other studies being uncontrolled trials/case series. To investigate the importance of RCTs, the data from the one RCT is re-analyzed as if it had been a case series. If only the group receiving the experimental treatment are considered, then the visual acuity was significantly better after than before treatment (paired t-test, p = 0.04). However, the control group who received a placebo treatment improved to a similar degree (p = 0.90). The literature on the placebo effect shows that it can influence objective variables and the outcome of surgical interventions. It is suggested that previous studies on interventions for nystagmus have laid an important foundation for future work in this field, which should involve RCTs.

Published 16 May 2006 in Semin Ophthalmol, 21(2): 111-6.
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