What will happen to the vision over time?

The pain will go away, usually in a few days. The vision problems will improve in the majority (92%) of patients. There are rare patients who have continued progressive loss of vision. Frequently colors look different or “washed out.” Visual recovery usually takes place over a period of weeks to months, although both earlier and later improvement is possible. Optic neuritis can recur involving the same eye, the other eye or other parts of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). This may result in recurrent episodes of decreased or loss of vision or problems with weakness, numbness or other signs of brain involvement. An MRI scan can give us a rough guess as to the likelihood of recurrence. Other testing techniques include visual evoked potentials (a test where you are shown a checkerboard of light and signals are recorded from electrodes on your scalp) that can show a delay in conduction due to the damage to the myelin.