Psychologists Richie Poulton, Simon Davies, Ross G. Menzies, John D. Langley, and Phil A. Silva sampled subjects from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study who had been injured in a fall between the ages of 5 and 9, compared them to children who had no similar injury, and found that at age 18, acrophobia was present in only 2 percent of the subjects who had an injurious fall but was present among 7 percent of subjects who had no injurious fall (with the same sample finding that typical basophobia was 7 times less common in subjects at age 18 who had injurious falls as children than subjects that did not).More studies have suggested a possible explanation for acrophobia is that it emerges through accumulation of non-traumatic experiences of falling that are not memorable but can influence behaviours in the future. Also, fear of heights may be acquired when infants learn to crawl. If they fell, they would learn the concepts about surfaces, posture, balance, and movement. Cognitive factors may also contribute to the development of acrophobia. People tend to wrongly interpret visuo-vestibular discrepancies as dizziness and nausea and associate them with a forthcoming fall. A traumatic conditional event of falling may not be necessary at this point. A fear of falling, along with a fear of loud noises, is one of the most commonly suggested inborn or "non-associative" fears. The newer non-association theory is that a fear of heights is an evolved adaptation to a world where falls posed a significant danger.
Multiple evanescent white dot syndrome (MEWDS) is an uncommon inflammatory condition of the retina that typically affects otherwise healthy young females in the second to fourth decades of life. The typical patient with MEWDS is a healthy middle aged female age 15-50. There is a gender disparity as women are affected with MEWDS four times more often than men. Roughly 30% of patients have experienced an associated viral prodrome. Patients present with acute, painless, unilateral change in vision. Presentation
Patients commonly present with acute unilateral painless decreased vision and photopsias. Presentations like central or paracentral scotoma, Floaters and dyschromatopsia are less common. An antecedent viral prodrome occurs in approximately one-third of cases. Myopia is commonly seen in patients. Eye exam during the acute phase of the disease reveals multiple discrete white to orange spots at the level of the RPE or deep retina, typically in a perifoveal location (around the fovea). Optic disc oedema may also seen occasionally. Cause
The etiology of multiple evanescent white dot syndrome is currently unknown. However, it is associated with the Pfizer vaccine according to the Jerusalem Post, August 4, 2021. Diagnosis
Visual field abnormalities are variable and include generalized depression of visual field, paracentral or peripheral scotoma and enlargement of the blind spot. Fluorescein angiography of the eye reveals characteristic punctate hyperfluorescent lesions in a wreath-like configuration surrounding the fovea. Indocyanine green angiography reveals hypofluorescent lesions in a greater number compared with other studies. Fundus autofluorescence (FAF) has been shown to be a noninvasive method to demonstrate the subretinal spots in MEWDS.