World Health Organisation formally recognises CBS

Global win for CBS cause

In June 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) formally recognised Charles Bonnet syndrome as a distinct clinical condition. The syndrome was included within the latest version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The ICD is like a clinical guidebook for all health conditions. This updated eleventh edition (ICD-11) is the first revised version since 1990 (ICD-10). 

The new ICD -11 takes formal effect as of January 1, 2022 and will apply to clinicians worldwide. Hopefully this official recognition of CBS will lead to a global increase in the identification and diagnosis of Bonnet syndrome. Perhaps it may also lead to other initiatives such as targeted health policies and funding allocated for research into an effective treatment.

If you would like to view the actual listing within the ICD-11, please click here.

A further poetic take on CBS

The Foundation is fortunate to be able to share another poem dedicated to Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS). On this occasion, the author is Delany Lemke whose work was originally published in the journal, Red Cedar Review, in 2018.

We gratefully acknowledge both Red Cedar Review and the author herself for giving permission for this work to be shared with the wider CBS community.

CHARLES BONNET SYNDROME by Delany Lemke

My face is permanently fifteen

in my grandmother's memory.

All her possessions

uselessly small.

Her glasses

do almost nothing.

Though sometimes,

from her window

she sees dancing women

wearing floral headscarves

out on the water.

She can count their eyelashes,

the petals on the fabric.

She sees their feet

striking the jetties

or their ankles rising

from the sandbar,

eyes like teacups

tasting the lake.

She wonders why these spirits

would come to haunt

her dead eyes.

She tells no one.

Delany Lemke is a Michigan poet currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at the University of Alabama. Her poems can be found in issues of Homology Lit, Juxtaprose, and 30 N. You can follow her mostly mundane life and catch any new publications at @delovelylany on Twitter.

A poet's description of Bonnet syndrome?

David Rowbotham (1924 - 2010) was an Australian journalist and poet of national repute. His poetry took off much later in his life and his published works were formally recognised when he won the Patrick White Award in 2007. He passed away three years later at the age of 86.

Just months before his passing, he had a poem published entitled Phantoms. Here is an excerpt from that poem:

 I see phantoms

They are new towns in a long tomb

They crowd the room 

Whether I dream or wake.

Their world is infinite,

They multiply,

Only the dead are sinister:

I see only because of them.

They are my blinding eyes:

Eyeless phantoms, sly moving shrouds,

Perpetual eyeless speechless things 

And enemy slings I'm living through. 

What strikes one is how these lines - as well as the title - hint that David may well have been describing his personal experience of Charles Bonnet syndrome.

His daughter, Jill Rowbotham, confirmed to the Foundation that her father lived with macular degeneration and glaucoma and was 'almost blind towards the end of his life'. However, there was no diagnosis of CBS given at the time nor did she (or her sister) note any comments from her father that may have indicated he lived with the syndrome. 

Even so, the vividness of his descriptions in this poem seems to point to experiences that many in the CBS community could relate to. This excerpt is shared with the generous permission of his daughters.