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Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffThere are currently no medical treatments available for most types of color vision difficulties, unless the color vision problem is related to the use of certain medicines or medical diseases that can be helped with other therapies.
If you have problems seeing shades of color, and there's an associated eye disease, treatment of the disease may help your color vision.
Wearing a colored filter over eyeglasses or a colored contact lens may enhance your perception of contrasts. But such lenses won't improve your ability to discern colors.
Recent research has shown that some rare retinal disorders associated with color deficiency can be corrected with gene replacement techniques. These treatments aren't currently available, except within strict research protocols, but it's possible that some of these treatments will become available in the future.
- Barrett KE, et al. Vision. In: Barrett KE, et al. Ganong's Review of Medical Physiology. 23rd ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2010. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=5240281. Accessed Dec. 15, 2010.
- Color vision deficiency. Genetics Home Reference. http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/color-vision-deficiency. Accessed Dec. 15, 2010.
- Color vision deficiency. American Optometric Association. http://www.aoa.org/x4702.xml?prt. Accessed Dec. 15, 2010.
- Gobba F. Color vision impairment in workers exposed to neurotoxic chemicals. NeuroToxicology. 2003;24:693.
- Robertson DM (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Dec. 22, 2010.
- Komaromy AM, et al. Gene therapy rescues cone function in congenital achromaptopsia. Human Molecular Genetics. 2010;19:2581.
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