What is optic neuritis?

Optic neuritis is an inflammation of the eye’s optic nerve.

In order for you to see, the optic nerve carries nerve impulses from the eye to the brain, where they are interpreted as images. Damage or infection of the optic nerve can affect vision significantly.

Optic neuritis is inflammation of the optic nerve, which lies at the back of the eye and carries visual information from the eye to the brain. Optic neuritis may cause partial or total loss of vision, usually in one eye, and is often associated with pain when the eye moves.

When optic neuritis causes partial vision loss, effects may include:

• Loss of vision in the center of the visual field (central scotoma).
• Changes in color perception, with bright colors appearing dull.

Symptoms of optic neuritis usually develop over a period of a few days to a week and stabilize for several weeks or months. In many cases vision then improves on its own. If not, steroid treatment usually works to relieve the inflammation.

Optic neuritis can be linked with other neurological and inflammatory conditions, such as multiple sclerosis.