USA: A recent study in the American Journal of Ophthalmology has demonstrated an association between eye disease in the pediatric population and mental illness.
"Mental illness screening and treatment in the pediatric population may be improved by understanding these relationships," Elana A. Meer, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, and colleagues wrote in their study.
The objective of the study was to evaluate the association between 5 eye diseases (including cataract, glaucoma, congenital retinal disease, congenital optic nerve disease, and blindness/low vision) and mental illness in a pediatric population in a cross-sectional study.
For this purpose, the researchers utilized a de-identified commercial insurance claims database, OptumLabs Data Warehouse, between 1/1/2007 and 12/31/2018. The study included children less than 19 years old at the time of eye diagnosis. A comparison was done between demographics and mental illness claims by looking at the association between mental illness and eye disease claims.
A total of 11,832,850 children and teens with a mean age of 8.04 +/- 5.94 years old at first claim were included in this study.
Based on the study, the researchers reported the following:
Of the patients with at least one of the 5 eye diseases (n=180,297), 30.5% had Glaucoma, 9.5% had cataracts, 21.4% had congenital optic nerve disease, 26.9% had a congenital retinal disease, and 25.9% had blindness or low vision.
There was a statistically significant association, after adjusting for confounding variables, between at least one of the 5 eye diseases and schizophrenia disorder (OR 1.54), anxiety disorder (OR 1.45), depressive disorder (OR 1.27), and bipolar disorder (OR 1.27), but a reversed association with substance use disorder (OR 0.88).
"We found associations between eye disease in children and teens and mental illness," wrote the authors. "Understanding these relationships may boost mental illness screening and treatment in the pediatric population."
Reference:
The study titled, "Association of Mood Disorders, Substance Abuse, and Anxiety Disorders in Children and Teens with Serious Structural Eye Diseases," was published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.
KEYWORDS: eye disease, mental illness, children, adolescents, cataract, glaucoma, congenital retinal disease, congenital optic nerve disease, blindness, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, substance use disorder, bipolar disorder, Elana A Meer