Convergence insufficiency therapy responds best to office-based treatment

Philadelphia-Children with convergence insufficiency improved significantly more with office-based treatment plus home reinforcement compared with home-based or placebo office therapy, according to a study published in the October issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.

After 12 weeks of treatment, office-based convergence/accommodative therapy with home reinforcement was associated with 30% to 40% reduction in symptom score compared with three other treatment strategies, study authors said.

Office-based treatment resulted in a 70% to 100% increase in the proportion of patients who had successful or improved outcomes compared with the other treatment groups.

"When translating these study results into clinical practice, it is important to recognize that they can only be applied to children with symptomatic [convergence insufficiency] who are aged 9 to 17 years," the authors said. "Adults with symptomatic [convergence insufficiency] may respond differently."