Risk factors for depression in glaucoma patients

Introduction/Objective. Glaucoma diagnosis often induces fear of vision loss and blindness, as well as concerns related to the lifelong use of eye drops and financial expenses, which can lead to certain emotional disorders, depression and anxiety in particular. As these psychological disturbances usually coexist with physical disorders, the aim of the present study was to assess the risk factors for depression in patients with glaucoma. Methods. This cross-sectional study involved 132 consecutive glaucoma patients that were seen between September 2018 and December 2019 at the Glaucoma Department of Clinic for Eye Diseases, University Clinical Centre of Serbia, in Belgrade. All participants completed the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale to assess depression and anxiety, respectively. Results. The mean age of glaucoma patients was 65.67 ± 8.63 years, whereby the mean age in the group with depression/anxiety was 65.74 ± 7.6 / 64.67 ± 5.51. Prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and previous surgery was statistically significantly greater among glaucoma patients exhibiting depression relative to those that did not report any depressive symptoms (42.6% vs. 15.4%, 66.7% vs. 34.6%, respectively). On the other hand, these two groups were indistinguishable with respect to the evaluated ophthalmological parameters and the number of eye drops used to treat glaucoma. Conclusion. Our analyses revealed that low economic status, poor health, prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, history of surgeries, and non-beneficial lifestyle habits such as coffee consumption are the main risk factors for depression. However, none of the investigated clinical ophthalmological characteristics emerged as the risk factors for depression.