Convergence insufficiency (CI) is a common childhood eye-teaming problem in which the eyes have a strong tendency to drift outward when reading or doing work close up. Double vision often occurs if an eye drifts out. To avoid seeing double, a child with CI must use extra effort to make the eyes turn back in. This extra effort can lead to annoying symptoms, such as eye strain, blurred or double vision, loss of concentration, and frequent loss of place when reading and working up close.
Children with CI have more symptoms and show worse attention when reading than children without CI. Research has shown that treatment using office-based accommodative-vergence vision therapy improves symptoms in children affected with CI. Some studies have suggested that this treatment also results in improvements in reading and attention. However, to know for sure whether vision therapy has a positive effect on reading and attention, this question needed to be studied using a randomized clinical trial design in a larger group of children.
The CITT-ART was designed to determine whether office-based vision therapy for CI improves reading and attention in children who have symptomatic CI. This study was funded by the National Eye Institute, which is a part of the National Institutes of Health. It was conducted at 8 clinical eye care locations across the United States; 310 children took part in the study. This study is registered at www.ClinicalTrials.gov – #NCT02207517.
Enrollment is closed for this study.