Features of psycho-emotional state of patients with central serous chorioretinopathy

Abstract

to investigate peculiarities of psycho-emotional reactions in patients with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR). The study involved 35 patients with CSCR (mean age of 47.7±8.5 years) and 26 volunteers without visual impairment (mean age of 35.8±4.5 years). Their psycho-emotional state was studied using the SCL-90-R questionnaire (the severity of psychopathological symptomatology), TOBOL method (the type of attitude to the disease), Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) (strategies for controlling behavior), Spielberger-Hanin method (the level of anxiety), and the VFQ-25 questionnaire (quality of life). The psycho-emotional state of CSCR patients is characterized by elevated levels of depressive and paranoiac symptoms, obsessions, compulsions, and anxiety. Such patients tend to show supernatural, sthenic desire to maintain their professional status. They tend to try to resolve the conflict by denying the problem, imagining things and distracting oneself. They also show reactive and personal anxiety. In this study, their quality of life was significantly lower than that in healthy volunteers, vision-related criteria particularly concerned. Patients with CSCR demonstrate certain psycho-emotional features that can aggravate their general medical condition as well as the ophthalmic status.