The patient brings a pencil slowly to within 2–3 cm (0.79–1.18 in) of the eye just above the nose about fifteen minutes per day five times per week. Patients should record the closest distance that they could maintain fusion (keep the pencil from going double as long as possible) after each five minutes of therapy. Computer software may be used at home or in an orthoptists/vision therapists office to treat convergence insufficiency. A weekly 60-minute in-office therapy visit may be prescribed. This is generally accompanied with additional in-home therapy.In 2005, the Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial (CITT) published two randomized clinical studies. The first, published in Archives of Ophthalmology, demonstrated that computer exercises when combined with office/based vision therapy/orthoptics were more effective than "pencil pushups" or computer exercises alone for convergency insufficiency in nine- to eighteen-year-old children. The second found similar results for adults 19 to 30 years of age. In a bibliographic review of 2010, the CITT confirmed their view that office-based accommodative/vergence therapy is the most effective treatment of convergence insufficiency, and that substituting it in entirety or in part with other eye training approaches such as home-based therapy may offer advantages in cost but not in outcome. A later study of 2012 confirmed that orthoptic exercises led to longstanding improvements of the asthenopic symptoms of convergence sufficiency both in adults and in children. A 2020 Cochrane Review concludes that office-based vergence/accommodative therapy with home reinforcement is more effective than home-based pencil/target push-ups or home-based computer vergence/accommodative therapy for children.
The standard definition of convergence insufficiency is exophoria greater at near than at distance, a receded near point of convergence, and reduced convergence amplitudes at near. See also
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