Colorblind

Alternative names:

color blind; color blindness; colorblindness

Definition:

The inability to perceive colors in a normal fashion.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors:

Colorblindness is an inherited condition that is sex linked recessive. As a result, very few women are colorblind but approximately 1 in 10 men has some degree of colorblindness.

The most common form of colorblindness is red-green and has a wide range of variability within this group from very mild to extreme. The second most common form is blue-yellow, and a red-green deficit is almost always associated with this form. The most severe form of colorblindness is achromatopsia, the inability to see any color, and is often associated with other problems such as amblyopia (lazy eye), nystagmus, photosensitivity, and extremely poor vision.