Original ArticlePrevalence and impact of depressive symptoms in patients with age-related macular degeneration
Section snippets
Methods
The study protocol was approved by the University of Alberta Research Ethics Board. Patients with the following characteristics were invited to participate in the study: (i) age older than 65 years; (2) presented to the Alberta Retina Consultants office between November 1, 2009, and February 29, 2010, with a diagnosis of AMD; and (3) fluent in English. Patients who had a preexisting diagnosis of depression were excluded. Each patient provided informed consent before participating in the study.
Results
Of 103 patients eligible to participate, the Mini-Mental Status Examination indicated that 2 were cognitively impaired and were, therefore, excluded from the study. Seven patients (6.9%) had a preexisting diagnosis of depression and were also excluded. A total of 94 patients constituted the final study population. The average age of the participants was 80.4 ± 6.8 years and 65 (69.2%) were female. No patients disclosed other past psychiatric conditions or a diagnosis of dementia.
Twenty (21.3%)
Conclusion
Depression was common in a cohort of patients with AMD. Given that the most important independent protective factors were living with others (OR 0.17) and higher composite VFQ scores (OR 0.925), ophthalmologists may consider using these findings to determine which patients should undergo further assessment by their primary care physicians for depression. In addition, the use of rapid, patient-completed questionnaires administered during the longitudinal encounter between patient and
Disclosure
The authors have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.
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Cited by (0)
Recipient of the 2011 Canadian Ophthalmology Society Award for Excellence in Ophthalmic Research (poster award).