Acquired Colour Deficits

Acquired colour vision defects are rarer than congenital ones, but  if found, can be used to investigate disease processes within the eye and visual system. Many diseases can give rise to an acquired defect- multiple sclerosis and diabetes for example, but in most cases the obvious problem, and the patient’s complaint is a drop in Vision- few red green colour vision defects occur without a drop in central vision, and usually accompany an obvious general health problem, though some blue defects may be detectable before any other symptoms become apparent. Testing for acquired defects are done more out of interest, though in certain drug treatments, such as Hydroxychloroquine (used to treat Rheumatoid arthritis), many establishments would want regular screenings to aid detection of drug toxicity.