This is the second part of my summary of the article Shedding Light on Photophobia. It concerns the article’s last section on diagnosis and photophobia treatment. (You may read about photophobia definition, symptoms and causes here).
Exactly, what is photophobia? It turns out it is not so clear, even for the scientists. Photophobia symptoms are obvious and form part of the definition of the condition. However, when you need a photophobia treatment, it gets complex. In many cases it is very difficult, when not impossible, to determine what causes photophobia. Here is the abstract of a recent (2012) overview of the most relevant photophobia research titled Shedding Light on Photophobia:
Below I reproduce the table of Conditions associated with photophobia adopted from the article Shedding Light on Photophobia. It was published in the Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology in 2012 and is (to the best of my knowledge) the most recent review of the research related to photophobia. You may read a summary of the article in the post: What is photophobia: definition, symptoms, causes and treatment.
f.lux software is another, excellent way to reduce glare on computer screen. There are excellent reviews (for example here, here, and here) along with simple instructions of how to use and personalize this user friendly software. If you do computer work at night, or under artificial lights only, f.lux software may help you sleep better and reduce computer eye strain. I have been using f.lux software for about half a year now and I’ve been thrilled to discover that people with light sensitivity (photophobia) can benefit from f.lux software in some unexpected ways.
Having reduced direct sun glare from your computer screen (and workstation) you now discover new glare you hadn’t noticed before. Being subtler this glare is more difficult to detect. You might not even notice the glare itself (depending on the level of your light sensitivity) but you do feel its effects after prolonged viewing of your computer screen: eye strain, general fatigue, tension around the eyes, headaches, etc.
GLARminY 