Screening for Depression and Anxiety in Patients with Active Uveitis

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To screen for psychological disorders in patients with active uveitis.

Methods: Patients were screened for depression (BDI-II), state anxiety (STAI-I), VR-QOL (NEI-VFQ-25), and HR-QOL (SF-36). Association of depression and anxiety with sociodemographic and clinical parameters and with VR-QOL and HR-QOL were analyzed. Multivariate linear regression models were constructed for NEI-VFQ-25 and SF-36 subscales.

Results: Of 99 patients, 37.3% screened positive for depression and 52.5% for anxiety. Depressed patients had lower visual acuity in the better seeing eye (p = 0.013) and more frequently panuveitis (p = 0.018). Anxious patients were younger (p = 0.009), had earlier onset of uveitis (p = 0.015), and had more frequently panuveitis (p = 0.016). Bivariate comparisons showed significant associations between psychological disorders and VR-QOL and HR-QOL. Significant bivariate associations were mostly lost in multivariate analyses for anxiety, but were preserved for depression.

Conclusions: A positive screening test for depression and anxiety is common in patients with uveitis. Low vision and panuveitis are associated with depression. Depression is associated with impairment of VR-QOL and HR-QOL.

Keywords:

• Anxiety
• BDI-II
• depression
• general health
• NEI-VFQ-25
• quality of life
• SF-36
• STAI-I
• uveitis
• vision

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

FUNDING

Ilknur Tugal-Tutkun has received financial support outside the submitted work, including honoraria from Servier, AbbVie, Santen, and Allergan.