Visual field in hysteria-reliability of visual field by Goldmann perimetry

Four cases with hysterical amblyopia in youngsters under 15-year-old showed the poor reproducibility of visual field, that is, when the same target was moved from the periphery toward the fixation ten times along the same meridian during the same examination, the position of the plotted points were rather variable. The range of variation was measured from the innermost point to the outermost one, after the two first points were omitted because points first detected were usually far from the others. The variation of cases measured by this method was compared with that of normal persons. Results were as follows; 1. in normal person, the mean value of its range was 5.5 degrees in first decade and 4.2 degrees in second to seventh decade; 2. patients with psychogenic visual disturbances showed a variability of 14.2 degrees, and this was significantly different from normal (p less than 0.01). These results suggest that this convenient method was helpful for diagnosis of hysteria. It should also be remembered that when we evaluate the visual field, changes under 4 degrees are probably not significant.