Has anyone here ever been diagnosed with Optic Neuritis?

Question

but did not have Multiple Sclerosis? Did you develop MS later on? If there was a different cause for your ON, did you ever find out what it was?

Thank you for the links gangadharan_nair.

I am familiar w/ this condition, I was diagnosed with it in June 2005 and my brain MRI came back normal so I'm just hoping there are others out there that have experienced this and can share their stories.

Answer 1

In less than half the cases of ON and abnormal brain scans, there actually is absolutely no cause, and it simply resolves itself within weeks to months. It's about 55% of cases in which ON is actually MS (yeah, I'm one of the 55%). Remember too, that only 3% of people who have ON and normal scans will have another MS symptom in the following 2 years.

Not a great answer to be sure, but I'm assuming you've heard of the Optic Neuritis Treatment Trials. Only 7.5% of patients who had ON and normal brain scans who were treated with IV steroids went on to develop MS, as opposed to 16% who were treated with oral steroids or placebo. Actually, oral steroids alone produced more ON symptoms than the placebo.

As a result of the Optic Neuritis Treatment Trials, ophthalmologists now treat patients with optic neuritis with either IV, followed by oral, steroids, or no treatment at all. Specifically, patients are not treated with oral steroids alone. For those patients who are treated, the regimen is typically 3 days of IV steroids followed by 10 to 14 days of oral steroids.

HTH

Answer 2

Please see the web page for more details on Optic neuritis. Consult an Ophthalmologist.