Xanthopsia

Medical term for seeing everything tinted in yellow

Xanthopsia is a color vision deficiency in which there is a dominantly yellow bias in vision due to a yellowing of the optical media of the eye. The most common causes are digoxin's inhibitory action on the sodium pump, and the development of cataracts which can cause a yellow filtering effect.

It has been suggested that Van Gogh contracted xanthopsia as a result of digoxin consumption. Digoxin is a medication derived from digitalis and used to treat various heart conditions. This theory claims xanthopsia as the cause of the yellow tinting exhibited by many of his works.^[1]

Xanthopsia is also a rare side-effect of jaundice, in which bilirubin may be deposited into the eye in sufficient quantity to produce a yellow tint to the vision.^[2]

References

^ "Van Gogh, Vincent (1853–1890)". Art, Vision, & the Disordered Eye. Vision & Aging Lab. University of Calgary. Archived from the original on 23 February 2005. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
^ Weatherall DJ, Ledingham JG, Warrell DA (1996). Oxford Textbook of Medicine (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.^{[page needed]}