Ojo seco y depresión en un consultorio de superficie ocular

Abstract

Purpose: To assess symptoms of depression and dry eye symptoms in a clinical setting of dry eye outpatients. 
Methods: This study involved consecutive patients who visited one of our authors (AA), a clinical ophthalmologist specializing in ocular surface pathology. All were second time patients with defined diagnosis which had been obtained in previous visits. They had an ocular surface exam and voluntarily completed a self-assessment survey of ocular symptoms, environmental factors and a depression scale. The ophthalmologist was masked for the results of the questionnaire. 
Results: The mean age of the sample of 105 patients was 60.1±13.4 years. And 86 were females (81.9%). In all, 6.7% of the sample had a diagnosis of depression, and 18.1% had suspicion of depression. Dry eye symptoms were reported by 62.9% of the tested sample. There was no association between symptoms and decreased meniscus. Logistic regression showed statistical association between decreased meniscus and lisamine green staining (p<0.001). Individuals with normal meniscus were found to have a higher depression score (p=0.033) with their percentage of suspected depression reaching 29.2%.
Conclusions: Symptomatology is not related to the severity of objective signs of dry eye. Depression should be taken into account in the dry eye consultation as a normal meniscus may be associated with depression in the dry eye consultation.