Psychological Distress in Patients with Symptomatic Vitreous Floaters

PURPOSE: To evaluate the degree of psychological distress in symptomatic vitreous floater patients and to evaluate whether these psychological factors are associated with the severity of discomfort associated with vitreous floaters. METHODS: We recruited 61 patients with symptomatic vitreous floaters and 34 controls. The degree of posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) was evaluated using optical coherence tomography. We measured the level of depression, perceived stress, state, and trait anxiety and the degree of floater-associated discomfort with self-administered questionnaire. We compared psychological parameters between floater patients and control. We also compared clinical and psychological characteristics among different floater-associated discomfort severity groups. RESULTS: Symptomatic vitreous floater patients showed higher rate of complete PVD and higher psychological distress compared to the control. On multiple logistic regression analysis, complete PVD (p = 0.001), depression (p = 0.001), and younger age (p = 0.037) were significantly associated with symptomatic floaters. There were no significant differences in complete PVD rate among different discomfort groups, while severe discomfort group showed higher depression, perceived stress, and state and trait anxiety compared to the other two milder symptom groups. CONCLUSIONS: Symptomatic vitreous floater patients showed substantial level of psychological distress, and the severity of floater symptoms was significantly associated with psychological distress.