Assessment of a novel patient reported outcome measure for visual snow syndrome: the Colorado visual snow survey 2.0

TL;DR

Researchers tested a new survey to measure symptoms of visual snow syndrome and found it effectively distinguishes patients from healthy individuals.

Contribution

The study introduces and validates the Colorado Visual Snow Survey 2.0 as a potential patient-reported outcome measure for visual snow syndrome.

Findings

The CVSS strongly differentiated people with VSS from healthy controls.

The survey showed high internal consistency and identified key symptoms predictive of VSS.

People with VSS may be more sensitive to entoptic phenomena and depersonalization/derealization.

Abstract

Visual snow syndrome (VSS) is a condition in which people experience a continuous overlay of small dots atop their entire visual field. As a newly recognized condition, there is a gap in patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) that target VSS symptom impact.

We sought to assess the Colorado Visual Snow Survey 2.0 (CVSS) as a possible PROM for VSS using a convenience sample of undergraduate students and people with VSS recruited through the Visual Snow Initiative (N = 144).

We found the CVSS (1) strongly differentiated people with VSS from healthy controls, (2) demonstrated high internal consistency, and (3) aside from visual static, the degree of night vision impairment, blue field entoptic phenomenon, and afterimages, and tinnitus (in that order) best predicted group membership. We also find evidence to suggest people with VSS may be more sensitive to entoptic phenomenon and depersonalization/derealization than control participants.

Overall, CVSS is a promising PROM that warrants further validation.

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