Prevalence of Charles Bonnet syndrome in patients with age‐related macular degeneration: systematic review and meta‐analysis

Age‐related macular degeneration ( AMD ) is the most common cause of visual impairment in the developed world. A number of patients experience complex lifelike visual experiences—Charles Bonnet syndrome ( CBS ). In this systematic review, our aim was to provide an overview of the CBS literature in relation to AMD , to determine the prevalence of CBS in patients with AMD and to provide an overview of associated demographical and clinical aspects. We searched the literature databases PubMed/ MEDLINE , EMBASE , Web of Science, the Cochrane Central, and Psyc INFO on 22 March 2019 for studies evaluating the prevalence of CBS in patients with AMD . Two independent authors extracted the data and evaluated risk of bias. Studies were reviewed qualitatively in the text and quantitatively in a meta‐analysis including subgroup analyses for differences between demographic and clinical factors. We identified 18 studies with data on >4303 patients with AMD . We found an overall prevalence of CBS of 15.8% (95% confidence interval: 11.0%–21.2%). When looking at consecutively recruited patients with neovascular AMD from the clinic, prevalence of CBS was 7.2% (95% confidence interval: 4.3%–10.6%). Among visitors to visual rehabilitation centres, prevalence of CBS was 31.6% (95% confidence interval: 21.7%–42.3%). Taken together, we find that CBS is rather common in patients with AMD .