Dr. Stéphanie Zwillinger made an interview in Femme Actuelle to talk about dyschromatopsia, also known as color blindness. This article written by Esther Buitekant addresses the topic of this pathology in its entirety: causes and symptoms, but also tests, diagnosis and possible treatments.
” Some people are colorblind, and they are not even aware of it.”
Color blindness affects the perception of colors, due to a dysfunction of the retina. Depending on how affected cones and rods are, the ocular anomaly vary under three different levels of color blindness:
- light (duller colors);
- moderate (do not differentiate red, green and/or blue);
- Strong (do not see any color, achromat.
The most common Dyschromatopsia is a difficulty to distinguish red and green.
“Some people are colorblind, and they are not even aware of it. They see colors, but not in the same manner a non colorblind person would see them. If you do not confront them, they do not realize it.” points out Dr. Stéphanie Zwillinger in the Femme Actuelle article.
Color blindess affects 8% of masculine population avec 0,45% of feminine population.
Men carry dyschromatopsia more often. The origin is genetic: color blindness is carried on the X chromosome. “For a boy to suffer from color blindness, his X chromosome must carry the defective gene. His mother is the prime carrier, and his mother grandfather was colorblind.”, pinpoints Dr. Stéphanie Zwillinger.
However, for girls, both their X chromosomes must be affected, which means the father also carries the defective gene.
To learn more about dyschromatopsia, treatments, diagnoses as well as the different forms of color blindness that exist (and even more), we invite you to click on the link below!
The article is only available in French.