Abstract [Download PDF] [Read Full Text]
Glaucoma is a kind of psychosomatic disorder.Investigating the psychological and behavioral characteristics of glaucoma patients has important implication for the prevention and treatment of the disease.
Present study aimed to characterize the personality profile of initial diagnosed glaucomatous patients.
Eighty-seven patients with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), ninety-two patients with primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) and eighty-nine normal controls (normal control group) were enrolled in this study from January 2008 to May 2014 in Peking University People’s Hospital.Clinical and demographic information which could relate to personality type was collected by filling in Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90), Life Event Scale (LES), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) voluntarily under the informed consent.The psychological, personality and behavior characteristics of the individuals were analyzed and compared among the different populations.
In SCL-90, the scores of compulsivity, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation and psychoticism inpatients with primary glaucoma were significant different among the three groups (all at P<0.01), and the scores were significantly higher in the patients of the POAG group and PACG group than those in the normal control group, and the scores were increased in the PACG group compared with the POAG group (all at P<0.05). In LES, the scores of family events, social intercourse and other events, life events, stress response were significantly different among the three groups (P=0.032, 0.002, 0.001, 0.000), and these scores were significant higher in the POAG group and PACG group compared with the normal control group, and the PACG group also had a significantly greater frequency of clinically abnormal score than the POAG group (all at P<0.05). EPQ data showed that the scores of psychology and nervousness in the POAG group and the PACG group were higher than those in the normal control group (all at P<0.05), but no significant difference were found in extroversion and stability of the personality among the three groups (P=0.321, 0.315). The total scores of SAS and SDS were considerably higher in the POAG group and the PACG group compared with the normal control group or the PACG group compared with the POAG group (all at P<0.05). The incidences of anxiety and depression were elevated in the POAG group and the PACG group in comparison with the normal control group (x2=15.520, P=0.000; x2=14.870, P=0.000).
The personality and behavioral factors are associated with the pathogenesis, development and therapy of primary glaucoma.The anxiety, depression and stronger stress response are found in glaucoma patients, especially PACG patients.