Objectives:
The aim of the study was to assess the depressive and anxiety symptoms and the quality of life (QofL) in patients treated for glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Materials and Methods:
Between March 1 and June 30, 2008, 60 outpatients with glaucoma and AMD were included into the study. As controls, sixty patients with similar sociodemographic features and who applied to the Ophthalmology Clinics with refractive errors only were taken. All patients and controls were applied the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) Turkish version.
Results:
The mean HDRS and HARS scores of the glaucoma and AMD patients were significantly higher than those of the controls (p<0.05). The mean HDRS and HARS scores did not show a significant difference between the patients with glaucoma and AMD (p>0.05). In the glaucoma and AMD groups, WHOQOL-BREF scores in the physical, social, environmental, and psychological domains were significantly lower than in the controls (p<0.05). The WHOQOL-BREF scores in the physical, social, environmental, and psychological domains did not show a significant difference between the patients with glaucoma and AMD (p>0.05).
Conclusion:
It was shown that the QofL was impaired in patients with glaucoma and AMD who were more depressive and anxious. So that, we believe that it is very important to keep under observation the psychiatric symptoms of patients who have chronic eye diseases like glaucoma and AMD to increase the quality of their lives and to improve the prognosis.
Keywords: AMD, anxiety, depression, glaucoma, quality of life