Short report

Mental health measures of anxiety and depression in patients with retinal detachment

Maneli Mozaffarieh¹, Stefan Sacu¹, Thomas Benesch² and Andreas Wedrich³

¹  Department of Ophthalmology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria

²  Institute of Medical Statistics, Medical University of Vienna, Austria

³  Department of Ophthalmology, Medical University of Graz, Austria

Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health 2007, 3:10doi:10.1186/1745-0179-3-10

Published:	19 July 2007

Abstract

In this study, the researchers examined anxious and depressive symptoms of patients with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) prior to and up to year after retinal detachment surgery. One hundred and thirteen (113) patients with RRD took part in this prospective longitudinal study. Anxiety and depression were evaluated using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Visual acuity (VA) results and HADS scores of all participants were recorded prior to and 3, 6 and 12 months after retinal detachment surgery. Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant association between the patients' VA and HADS psychological scores both prior to and three months after surgery, regardless of the type of surgery performed. Psychological distress is a significant problem associated with retinal detachments that requires more attention.