ARTICLE A Flicker Therapy for the Treatment of Amblyopia of this study is to evaluate a novel approach to amblyopia treatment that uses rapid alternating occlusion and flicker and aims to improve monocular and binocular vision. Fuensanta A. Vera-Diaz, OD, PhD, FAAO, New England College of Optometry, Boston, Massachusetts Bruce Moore, OD, FAAO, New England College of Optometry, Boston, Massachusetts Eric Hussey, OD, FCOVD, Optometric Offices, Spokane, Washington Gayathri Srinivasan, OD, MS, FAAO, New England College of Optometry, Boston, Massachusetts Catherine Johnson, OD, FAAO, New England College of Optometry, Boston, Massachusetts ABSTRACT Background: Standard clinical treatment methods for amblyopia penalize the non- amblyopic eye, with subsequent compliance problems, and do not address the associated binocular vision abnormality. The purpose Results: After 12 weeks of therapy, 96% (n=22) of the children treated improved BCVA in the amblyopic eye (p<0.001) - over 26% (n=6) improved 2 LogMAR lines or more (fellow eye BCVA did not change) - and 89% of the children with reliable data (n=18) improved global stereopsis. Conclusions: This relatively passive therapy has shown encouraging results as a potential treatment for amblyopia. The improvement in BCVA is comparable to previous studies that used traditional amblyopia therapies. The improvement in stereopsis suggests that the therapy promotes binocular vision. Notably, BCVA and stereopsis improved across all ages and in subjects who had previously plateaued with conventional therapies. Randomized masked and controlled studies are the next step to further quantify the clinical efficacy of this therapy. Correspondence regarding this article should be emailed to Fuensanta A. Vera-Diaz, OD, PhD, at vera_diazf@neco.edu. All state­ments are the author’s personal opinion and may not reflect the opinions of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, Vision Development & Rehabilitation or any institu­tion or organization to which the author may be affiliated. Permission to use reprints of this article must be obtained from the editor. Copyright 2016 College of Optometrists in Vision Development. VDR is indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals. Online access is available at www.covd.org. BACKGROUND Amblyopia is a leading cause of permanent monocular vision impairment 1 , the fourth most prevalent disability among children in the US, and a significant public health problem. Failure to identify children with amblyopia at young ages, when treatment is most successful, Vera-Diaz FA, Moore B, Hussey E, Srinivasan G, Johnson C. A Flicker therapy for the treatment of amblyopia. Vision Dev & Rehab 2016;2(2):105-14. Keywords: Amblyopia, Binocular Vision, Flicker, Rapid Alternating Occlusion, Stereopsis, Suppression Vision Development & Rehabilitation Methods: A pre-post (12 weeks) interventional study with historical data control. Children with anisometropic amblyopia (ages 5 to 17 years, n=23) were enrolled by consecutive sample. Subjects wore Eyetronix Flicker Glass, shutter glasses with liquid crystal lenses that rapidly alternated occlusion at a programmable frequency, for 1-2 hours daily while performing a near task of their choice, e.g., homework, computer. Outcome measures were: (1) best- corrected LogMAR visual acuity (BCVA) and (2) Random Dot 2 stereopsis. 105 Volume 2, Issue 2 • July 2016