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Irlen syndrome (or scotopic sensitivity syndrome) is a purported medical condition of disordered visual processing, which, it is proposed, can be treated by wearing colored lenses. The ideas of Irlen syndrome are
pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...
and not supported by scientific evidence, and its treatment has been described as a health fraud that takes advantage of vulnerable people. The condition was proposed in the 1980s.


Irlen method

The Irlen method uses colored overlays and tinted lenses in the form of glasses or contact lenses. The method is intended to correct visual processing problems; it is claimed the resultant retiming of visual signals in the brain improves symptoms associated with Irlen syndrome.


History

In 1980, New Zealand teacher Olive Meares described the visual distortions some individuals reported when reading from white paper. In 1983, while working under a federal research grant at the California State University of Long Beach, American psychologist Helen Irlen thought that through the use of either colored overlays or spectral filters (worn as glasses) that would filter the visual information before it reaches the brain could enable the brain to correctly process the visual information it received. Irlen thought that in doing so, the colored overlays and spectral filters could eliminate symptoms associated with Irlen syndrome. Similar symptoms were described separately by Meares and Irlen, each unaware of the other's work. Irlen, who was first to systematically define the condition, named the condition " scotopic sensitivity syndrome," although in years afterward, some referred to it as Meares-Irlen
syndrome A syndrome is a set of medical signs and symptoms which are correlated with each other and often associated with a particular disease or disorder. The word derives from the Greek language, Greek σύνδρομον, meaning "concurrence". When a sy ...
, Irlen syndrome, and visual stress. Early studies investigating Irlen syndrome as a treatable condition have been criticized for taking a biased and subjective approach to the research.


See also

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References

{{reflist Vision Dyslexia Syndromes Alternative diagnoses Alternative therapies for developmental and learning disabilities Health fraud Pseudoscience