Visual contrast sensitivity in drug-induced Parkinsonism

The influence of stimulus orientation on contrast sensitivity function was studied in 10 patients with drug-induced Parkinsonism. Nine of the 10 patients had at least one eye with contrast sensitivity deficit for vertical and/or horizontal stimuli. Only generalised contrast sensitivity loss, observed in two eyes, was stimulus orientation independent. All spatial frequency-selective contrast deficits in 15 eyes were orientation dependent. The striking similarity between the pattern of contrast sensitivity loss in drug-induced Parkinsonism and that in idiopathic Parkinson's disease, suggests that generalised dopaminergic deficiency, from whatever cause, affects visual function in an analogous way.