Charles Bonnet syndrome: characteristics of its visual hallucinations and differential diagnosis

Objective: To present an eight-case serie of patients with Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS). Method: All patients were initially evaluated by an ophthalmologist and then submitted to a neurologic evaluation with exclusion of alternative psychiatric and neurologic diagnoses. Results: Five patients wer...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Thiago Cardoso Vale, Luciene Chaves Fernandes, Paulo Caramelli
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Thieme Revinter Publicações 2014-05-01
Series:Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria
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Online Access:http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2014000500333&lng=en&tlng=en
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Summary:Objective: To present an eight-case serie of patients with Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS). Method: All patients were initially evaluated by an ophthalmologist and then submitted to a neurologic evaluation with exclusion of alternative psychiatric and neurologic diagnoses. Results: Five patients were male (62.5%) and the mean age was 52.3+16.0 years. Two patients suffered from severe myopia and glaucoma, three had retinitis pigmentosa, one had anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, one had age-related macular degeneration and one had toxoplasmic retinochoroiditis. Mean visual acuity in the right eye was 1,12 logMAR and in the left eye 0.57 logMAR. A mean delay of 41.7 months occurred until diagnosis. All hallucinations were complexes and mostly ocurred on a weekly-basis (62.5%) and lasted for seconds (87.5%). Conclusions: Physicians who care for low vision patients should be aware of CBS and appropriately diagnose its hallucinations after exclusion of psychiatric and neurologic diseases.
ISSN:1678-4227