Lyme Disease Eyes: Symptoms and Vision Problems
Eye symptoms may occur with Lyme disease
Visual changes can affect daily functioning
Recognition may help shorten delays in diagnosis
Lyme disease eyes can involve blurred vision, light sensitivity, double vision, contrast sensitivity loss, and other visual disturbances. Many patients searching for Lyme disease eye symptoms ask whether Lyme disease can affect vision, reading, balance, and everyday activities.
Several reports suggest Lyme disease may affect visual processing, ocular function, and neurologic pathways involved in vision. Learn more about neurologic Lyme disease and the broad range of Lyme symptoms.
In their article, “Contrast Sensitivity Loss in Patients With Posttreatment Lyme Disease”, Rebman and colleagues reported that Lyme disease may contribute to loss of contrast sensitivity.1
What Is Contrast Sensitivity Loss?
Contrast sensitivity becomes especially important when contrast between objects and their background is reduced, such as during low light, glare, fog, or night driving.
According to Arditi, contrast sensitivity is strongly associated with reading performance, mobility, face recognition, driving, and activities of daily living.2
The Rebman study found:
“CS impairment was associated with an increased odds of being in the PTLD group that was 2.6 times as high as those without CS impairment.”
The authors concluded:
“CS impairment in patients with PTLD is linked to signs of cognitive and neurologic impairment and may be a marker of illness severity.”1
These findings suggest some visual complaints may reflect broader neurologic involvement rather than isolated eye disease.
Can Lyme Disease Affect Your Eyes?
Yes. Lyme disease may affect the eyes directly or indirectly through neurologic involvement. Patients with Lyme disease eyes symptoms frequently report blurred vision, visual fatigue, light sensitivity, and difficulty functioning in visually demanding environments.
The relationship between Lyme disease and eyes is complex because symptoms may arise from direct ocular involvement, neurologic dysfunction, autonomic problems, or broader inflammatory changes.
A visual rehabilitation newsletter article from Padula described a young woman who developed multiple visual complaints after Lyme disease.3
A 20-year-old woman presented with headaches, asthenopia, occasional diplopia, extreme light sensitivity, dizziness, and balance problems.
Her symptoms fluctuated day to day. She also reported difficulty reading, headaches with near work, fatigue after reading, brain fog, and difficulty tolerating visually busy environments.
She described worsening concentration, reduced attention span, and difficulty functioning in school.
These symptoms overlap substantially with complaints frequently reported in brain fog associated with Lyme disease.
Another report described a 46-year-old woman who developed sudden bilateral vision loss and paresthesias due to Lyme disease.4
Gibaud and colleagues described a 9-year-old girl who developed headaches, facial palsy, and involuntary rapid eye movements (opsoclonus).5
The child’s abnormal eye movements improved after antibiotic treatment.
Common Lyme Disease Eye Symptoms
Common Lyme disease eye symptoms include:
- Blurred vision
- Light sensitivity
- Double vision (diplopia)
- Difficulty reading
- Contrast sensitivity loss
- Eye pain or discomfort
- Visual processing problems
- Difficulty tolerating visually busy environments
- Problems with night driving
- Balance problems linked to visual dysfunction
Not every symptom reflects direct infection of the eye. Some symptoms may reflect neurologic dysfunction affecting visual pathways.
Learn more about ocular Lyme disease, autonomic dysfunction in Lyme disease, and persistent Lyme symptoms.
Lyme Disease Vision Problems and Visual Changes
Vision complaints are often overshadowed by fatigue, pain, cognitive dysfunction, or neurologic symptoms.
Patients may describe visual symptoms as dizziness, brain fog, imbalance, poor concentration, or difficulty reading rather than recognizing them as vision problems.
This overlap may contribute to delays in identifying Lyme disease vision problems.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Lyme disease affect your eyes?
Yes. Lyme disease may contribute to blurred vision, light sensitivity, double vision, visual processing problems, and other eye-related symptoms.
What are common Lyme disease eye symptoms?
Common symptoms include blurred vision, light sensitivity, double vision, difficulty reading, visual fatigue, and contrast sensitivity problems.
Can Lyme disease cause light sensitivity?
Yes. Several reports describe increased light sensitivity and difficulty tolerating bright environments among Lyme disease patients.
Can Lyme disease cause vision problems without eye pain?
Yes. Some visual symptoms may reflect neurologic dysfunction rather than direct eye inflammation.
Can Lyme disease affect night driving?
Contrast sensitivity loss may make night driving more difficult for some patients.
Clinical Takeaway
Visual symptoms may be overlooked in Lyme disease because patients often focus first on fatigue, pain, or cognitive complaints.
Eye symptoms, contrast sensitivity loss, and visual processing problems may provide additional clues when evaluating complex neurologic presentations.
Related Articles
You may also find these articles helpful:
Visual Changes in Lyme Disease
Eye Problems in Tick-Borne Diseases Other Than Lyme
Brain Fog and Lyme Disease
Persistent Lyme Disease Overview
References
- Rebman AW, Yang T, Aucott JN, Mihm EA, West SK. Contrast Sensitivity Loss in Patients With Posttreatment Lyme Disease. Transl Vis Sci Technol. 2021.
- Arditi A. Improving the design of the letter contrast sensitivity test. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2005;46(6):2225-2229.
- Padula Institute of Visual Rehabilitation. Lyme and Tick-borne Disease: Compromise of Visual Processing. Primary Care Optometry News.
- Jha P, Rodrigues Pereira SG, Thakur A, Jhaj G, Bhandari S. A Case of Optic Neuritis Secondary to Lyme Disease. WMJ. 2018;117(2):83-87.
- Gibaud M, Pauvert O, Gueden S, Durigneux J, Van Bogaert P. Opsoclonus in a child with neuroborreliosis: Case report and review of the literature. Arch Pediatr. 2019.
Dr. Daniel Cameron, MD, MPH
Lyme disease clinician with over 30 years of experience and past president of ILADS.
Symptoms • Testing • Coinfections • Recovery • Pediatric • Prevention
Poor contrast sensitivity is also associated with biotoxin illness, most often from mold growth in water damaged buildings. There is a subgroup of patients, about 25%, who genetically lack the ability to clear these toxins, even after leaving the building. Severe inflammation and immune dysregulation develop. Such patients have difficulty clearing tick borne infections, despite aggressive treatment. It is also difficult to distinguish between symptoms of ongoing Lyme disease and biotoxin illness. It is possible that some patients with PTLD are living or working in moldy environments. It is also possible that Lyme alone could cause changes in contrast sensitivity, as it also is inflammatory and affects the nervous system. A definitive test to detect on going infection would help greatly.