High prevalence of anxiety and depression in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma

PURPOSE: To assess anxiety and depression in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). DESIGN: Multicenter prospective case-control study. PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred thirty patients with POAG and 230 sex-matched and age-matched reference subjects with no chronic ocular conditions except cataracts. INTERVENTION: Anxiety and depression were evaluated using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaire, which consists of 2 subscales with ranges of 0 to 21, representing anxiety (HADS-A) and depression (HADS-D). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The prevalence of POAG patients with anxiety (a score of more than 10 on the HADS-A) or depression (a score of more than 10 on the HADS-D) was compared with that in the reference subjects. The prevalence of patients with depression was compared between the POAG patients with and without current β-blocker eye drops. RESULTS: The prevalence (13.0%) of POAG patients with anxiety was significantly higher (P=0.030) than in the reference subjects (7.0%). The prevalence (10.9%) of POAG patients with depression was significantly higher (P=0.026) than in the reference subjects (5.2%). Between the POAG patients with and without β-blocker eye-drops, no significant difference (P=0.93) in the prevalence of depression was noted. CONCLUSIONS: POAG was related to anxiety and depression. No significant relationship between the use of β-blocker eye-drops and depression was noted.