Abstract
Purpose :
To determine the presence of dry eye symptoms in patients who visit the mood and anxiety clinic at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Methods :
A cross-sectional pilot study consisting of thirty-seven patients with depression and/or anxiety were recruited. A validated short dry eye symptom questionnaire consisting of 3 questions was given to each patient who self-reported the following (Schaumberg D et al., 2003): (i) How often do your eyes feel dry (not wet enough)?; (ii) How often do your eyes feel irritated?; and (iii) Have you ever been diagnosed (by a clinician) as having dry eye syndrome? For the first two questions the patient is given four choices as to the frequency of symptoms, which are scored as follows: never = 1; sometimes = 2; often = 3; and constantly = 4. For the third question answers were recorded as “Yes” or “No”. Response scores were computed and categorized by clinical diagnosis of dry eye syndrome. Categorical data analysis was performed. The prevalence of DED was defined as either the presence of a previous clinical diagnosis or severe symptoms (both dryness and irritation, constantly or often).
Results :
Mean age was 43 (+ 16.90). The prevalence of patients reporting how often their eyes feel dry in each category were: 27.8% (sometimes); 41.7% (often); 22.2% (constantly). Mean response score for how often do your eyes feel dry was 2.80 (+ 0.83). The prevalence of patients reporting if their eyes feel irritated in each category were: 47.2% (sometimes); 36.1% (often); 13.9% (constantly). Mean response score for how often your eyes feel irritated was 2.67 (+ 0.72). Thirty percent reported being diagnosed by a clinician as having dry eye syndrome. Of patients reporting that they have not been diagnosed by a clinician as having dry eye syndrome (n=25), 88% reported experiencing some degree of dry eye symptoms and 92% reported experiencing some eye irritation. Twenty-two percent reported as having both dryness and irritation often or constantly.
Conclusions :
This study suggests that 22% of patients receiving psychiatric treatment who report severe symptoms of DED remain undiagnosed. This makes a case for routine evaluation of patients undergoing psychiatric treatment for the presence of DED.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.