ADHD medication -- my son claims it helps with his vision

[healthy11]

This isn't "scientifically based" information, but I thought it was really interesting. My son (age 23) claims he can see better when he's taking Adderall for his ADHD, as opposed to when his medication wears off. What's odd is that our son has good vision anyway and doesn't wear glasses, even though my husband and I are extremely nearsighted, and have worn glasses since 2nd grade.

To make a long story short, our son's girlfriend is in post-grad school, studying optometry. As part of her training, she has to practice giving exams to volunteers, and our son was apparently one of her first "patients" who doesn't ordinarily wear corrective lenses. Since she's still learning, she didn't just stop her exam with the eye chart that measures 20/20 vision, she tested our son down to 20/10 (for laypeople, that means he can see small detail at 20 feet what people with normal 20/20 have to move up to 10 feet to see.) Oddly, our son noted that he wasn't surprised, because when he takes his Adderall, he says he's definitely able to focus better, both literally and figuratively. I wonder if it's because he's just "slowing down" and paying closer attention to details rather than rushing through what he tries to read, including the individual letters on the eye chart, or if there's something more to it? In any case, the fact that he brought the topic up about his vision seeming to improve when on ADHD medication seemed like it was worth mentioning.

[eoffg]

That is most interesting and well worth mentioning.
Where what could be effected is saccadic and/or micro-saccadic eye movements?

If you look at a word on this page, your eyes actually automatically move 3 to 5 times per second. So that you look around the word.
Where this is called saccadic movement, and is involuntary.
But this is continuous scanning process, around the 'word'.

Though the problem with this, is that with these 3 to 5 movements a second? Each has their own focal point.
So that 1 or 2 times a second, something called micro-saccades occur.
These provide 'fixational focus', from these saccadic movements.
Where they identify a focal point.

But these movements of the eyes are very precise and operate in patterns of movement.
Though 'attention' plays a significant role in micro-saccades, which are vulnerable to 'covert attention' and 'distractors'.
Where recent research has shown that the same neural system that controls attention, also controls the system that generates saccadic eye movements.
So that it would be a logical conclusion, that ADHD medications effect on attention, would carry over to greater attention control of vision?

[healthy11]

I'd not heard the term saccadic regarding eye movement before; I appreciate your commenting, so I can learn more about them!

[SharonF]

eoffg has a far more scientific explanation than I could offer. But I was thinking of a simpler version of the same thing.

I believe ADHD can affect so much more than the stereotypic DSM traits. Yes, our eyes see. But then our brain has to make sense of what the eyes are seeing. And if the brain is easily distracted, it may not do a complete and thorough job of making sense of what the eyes are seeing.

Kind of like auditory processing vs. ADHD. As we know, there's overlap. With CAPD, the ears hear but the brain doesn't always make full sense of what is heard. With ADHD, the ears hear but the brain may be distracted from making full sense of what is heard.

Your son has excellent vision but his brain may be "missing" some of the things his eyes see clearly.

In a similar way, my dd has incredibly acute hearing but her brain used to "miss" some of the things her ears heard clearly. On ADHD meds, her CAPD is basically a non-issue.

[healthy11]

Unfortunately, my son still only takes his ADHD medication when he thinks he needs it (ie, a long day sitting behind a computer at work), as opposed to using his Adderall daily, even though most observers would say he could benefit from regular use...He may be able to tell that his vision is better, and that his appetite is less, but I don't think he can distinguish what other people see as far as him having more patience, etc. when he's taking his meds.

[eoffg]

Though research into vision and attention is most interesting?
Where it has identified its operation in the realms of 'overt and covert attention'.
As well as voluntary and reflexive attention.
Where the role of each of these types of visual attention has been identified, as well as the brain regions involved with each of them.

Which raises the question of whether these 'types of attention', also apply to auditory processing?

Though of great interest, is that the Parietal Lobes, which are used for spatial processing. Play a primary role in all types attention.