Association of Ophthalmologic Disorders and Depression in the Elderly: A Review of the Literature.

OBJECTIVE

To review the prevalence of depression in common ophthalmologic disorders in the elderly and provide insight into treatment.

DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Google Scholar, and DynaMed were searched using the terms depression and ophthalmology in combination with depression, mood disorders, cataracts, vision loss, age-related macular degeneration, primary open-angle glaucoma, and Fuchs corneal dystrophy. Articles were limited to those published in the English language between 1993 and 2013.

STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION: Twenty-eight articles that studied the prevalence of depression in ophthalmologic disorders were screened and summarized.

RESULTS

The strongest association between ophthalmologic disorders and psychiatry is depression. In the future, primary care physicians and psychiatrists should play a significant role in the assessment and treatment of depression in visually impaired patients.

CONCLUSION

Greater recognition and treatment of depression in individuals with impaired vision is warranted.