Introduction: Visually impaired patients may experience visual hallucinations due to the Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS). While benign in nature, these hallucinations may cause distress in those unfamiliar with the phenomenon. The overall purpose of this study was to determine the degree of awareness of CBS in patients referred to our retina clinic.
Material and methods: Consenting patients attending our retina clinic over a period of three months underwent a thorough ophthalmological examination, including slit-lamp fundus biomicroscopy, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography, fundus autofluorescence imaging and fluorescein/indocyanine green angiography (if applicable). Visual acuity was measured and the participants were subjected to a structured telephone interview.
Results: A total of 200 patients were included in this cross-sectional study. Twelve per cent of the participants were familiar with CBS. Patients who were clients at a low-vision rehabilitation clinic or were highly educated were more likely to be familiar with CBS. There was an association between low visual acuity and awareness of CBS. Logistic regression analysis revealed that only low visual acuity and university education were independently associated with familiarity with CBS. Fifteen per cent of the participants admitted to having visual hallucinations.
Conclusion: Visually impaired patients are largely unfamiliar with CBS. Since unawareness of CBS may cause unnecessary distress in some patients, efforts to educate low-vision patients about CBS should be made.
Funding: not relevant.
Trial registration: not relevant.