What is Binocular Vision Dysfunction (BVD)? | Spokane, WA
Discover the Hidden Cause of Headaches, Dizziness, and Anxiety at Eyes For Life
At Eyes For Life in Spokane, we specialize in helping patients uncover and treat a little-known condition called Binocular Vision Dysfunction (BVD). When your eyes are slightly misaligned, they send two different images to your brain, forcing it to work overtime to create a single, clear picture. This extra effort often leads to symptoms like headaches, dizziness, motion sickness, chronic neck pain, and even heightened anxiety.
Symptoms of BVD
BVD can impact individuals of all ages, from young children to adults in Spokane and throughout the Inland Northwest.
- Children with BVD often struggle with reading, coordinating their movements during sports, and handling car rides without getting sick. It’s common for BVD to be misdiagnosed as ADHD, dyslexia, or even frequent migraines.
- Adults battling BVD may experience constant headaches, anxiety, dizziness, and difficulties keeping up with daily tasks at work or home.
Because BVD symptoms are broad and often misunderstood, specialists organize them into specific categories to better recognize patterns:
Physical Findings:
- Neck pain and/or shoulder and back pain
- Struggles to walk in a straight line
- Head tilt
- Clumsy, bumping into doorways and people they are walking next to
- Prone to falling or tripping
Reading Challenges:
- Rereading for comprehension
- Skipping lines when reading
- Letters running together
- Uses finger-pointing when reading
- Fatigue with reading
- Difficulty focusing or paying attention
- Struggling to pay attention in school
Neurological Findings:
- Migraines; daily headaches
- Migraine associated vertigo (MAV) or vestibular migraine (VM)
- Eliminate seizures
Driving Symptoms:
- Anxiety on the highway
- Car sickness or nausea
- Experience glare at night
- Trouble driving at night
Anxiety Symptoms:
- Panic attacks in crowded areas or on highways
- Anxiety in large department stores or shopping malls
- Agoraphobia (extreme fear of open or crowded places, or of leaving one’s own home)
Binocular Vision Symptoms:
- Diplopia or double vision
- Poor depth perception or judging distances
- Trouble catching balls
- Difficulties with hand-eye coordination
- Poor handwriting & drawing skills
- Poor eye contact
- Covering one eye to clear the image
What Causes BVD?
At our Spokane clinic, we often find that BVD can stem from natural facial asymmetry or from a concussion or head injury — even ones that seem minor, like falling off a bike or a sports collision. Research suggests that around 20% of adults may suffer from BVD symptoms without realizing it.
Genetic factors can also play a role, with early studies showing a tendency for BVD to run in families, often passed from mother to daughter. Additionally, conditions like strokes, Lyme disease, COVID-19, and Mononucleosis (Mono) have been linked to developing BVD symptoms.
Can BVD Be Misdiagnosed?
Yes — and unfortunately, it happens often.
Because traditional eye exams don’t typically screen for binocular misalignment, many individuals are mistakenly diagnosed with other conditions when BVD is the real underlying issue.
Common misdiagnoses include:
- Agoraphobia
- Anxiety / Panic disorders
- ADD / ADHD
- Cervical misalignment
- Meniere’s Disease
- MS (Multiple Sclerosis)
- Reading Comprehension Issues
- Sinus problems
- Psychogenic dizziness / Chronic Subjective Dizziness
- BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo)
- PPPD (Persistent Postural-Perceptual Dizziness)
- Vestibular Migraine / Migraine Associated Vertigo (MAV)
- TMJ (temporomandibular joint) disorders
Wondering if BVD is Affecting You?
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