Elucidating the Visual Snow Spectrum: A Latent Class Analysis Study

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Neurology
• Psychophysics

Background:

• Visual snow syndrome (VSS) is characterized by visual snow (VS) and other perceptual phenomena.
• The prevalence and patterns of these phenomena in the general population are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the patterns of perceptual phenomena associated with VSS in a large, unselected sample.
• To determine if the presence of VS influences the clustering of other perceptual phenomena.

Main Methods:

• A screening questionnaire assessed frequency and severity of VSS-related perceptual phenomena in 2,000 participants.
• Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify subgroups based on symptom patterns.

Main Results:

• Of 1,846 analyzed participants, 41.92% experienced VS, with 4.49% having VSS without prior knowledge.
• The mean number of experienced perceptual phenomena was 2.03.
• LCA revealed four distinct classes that differed in symptom frequency and number, irrespective of VS presence.

Conclusions:

• Perceptual phenomena associated with VSS appear common in the general population.
• These symptoms do not necessarily indicate underlying pathology.
• Visual snow alone does not account for the co-occurrence of other perceptual phenomena in VSS.