CURES BY PERSUASION

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 May 1936, Page 12

CURES BY PERSUASION

NEW TREATMENT FOR SQUINT

LONDON, March 19. New hope for sufferers from squint is offered by the work of Dr. W. Hedley Summerskill, Clinical Assistant at the Royal Eye Hospital. He has established that in the majority of cases squipting is based on the workings of unconscious habit, and, by a system of what be calls “psychological re-education,” he has effected permanent cures of adults, without having recourse to an operation. In an article explaining his methd in the “Medical World,” Dr. Summerskill declares that operative correction of squint is “at best an unsatisfactory procedure.” i “It is usual,” continues Dr. Sum-

merskill, “to abandon any effort to restore binocular function to the squin ter of over 10 years of age. It is my experience that re-education is,actually easier after this age. as one secures fuller and more intelligent cooperation from an older patient.” Details are given of seven cases of patients from 10 to 50 years old who have been cured in from four to 10 weeks of the new’ treatment. The main feature of the treatment is persuading the deviating eye to desire fusion. x Mechanical devices are used by Dr. Summerskill, such as coloured lights and large coloured letters and counting fingers, to place the eyes under the most encouraging optical conditions. They have in themselves no mrative value.