CBS Defined

A vision-impaired
person of sound mind experiences
phantom images (visions) in
their visual field.

 
National helpline
1300 121 123

"No-one told me I may end up seeing things that aren't really there."

"How can that butterfly be so vivid when I can't even see my daughter's face?"

"I'm legally blind so why am I seeing animals in stunning detail?"

"I didn’t know what was happening to me. Was this the start of dementia?"

"This weird figure appears almost daily but I know it is not real."

Listen to an ABC radio feature on CBS under 'Support', then 'Podcasts'

Listen to an ABC radio feature on CBS under 'Support', then 'Podcasts'

"The squares start at the floorboards and rise like blue lanterns."

Out of Africa

CBS IN AFRICA

Over the past 35 years, the CBS literature has been dominated by studies and case reports from European and English speaking countries. It is therefore refreshing to discover a CBS study undertaken in Eastern Africa.

Professor Yaswant Vagrecha, based at the School of Psychology at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, investigated vision-impaired university students (21 - 43 yrs of age). Vagrecha (2016) discovered the presence of CBS amongst the majority of such students. This research is valuable on three counts:

  • It is the first known CBS study ever conducted on the African continent.
  • It found that CBS can occur in early adulthood where there is acquired vision loss. 
  • This reinforces the finding of a German study (Elflein et al, 2016) which also reported that CBS is not solely an elderly condition.  

 

REFERENCE

Vagrecha, Y.S. (2016) Revisiting the Charles Bonnet Syndrome in Visually Impaired Students in Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.  Indian Journal of Community Psychology, 12(1): 1-8. 

 

 

 

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The Charles Bonnet Syndrome Foundation is dedicated to raising awareness of CBS, what signs to look out for and how to better manage this condition.

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