Doctors unveil the vicious cycle of vision loss & stress

In a recent study, published by doctors from Germany and India, it has been confirmed that while prolonged mental stress is clearly a consequence of vision loss, it may also aggravate the situation.

The study published in EPMA Journal suggests that continuous stress and cortisol levels negatively impact the eye and the brain. The doctors have concluded that stress is both a consequence and cause of vision loss. A doctor from All India Institute of Medical Sciences explains that vision loss is considered to be irreversible and often progressive. Thus, patients suffering from vision loss go through mental stress due to worries, anxiety, or fear and sometimes depression. This leads to lowering of intraocular pressure and thus forms a vicious cycle which further creates more stress.

"All the literature put together suggests that there is definitely a psychosomatic (caused by stress) component to vision loss, not only as consequence, but fundamentally related to cause also. Stress and its close relation with Glaucomatous vision loss open new possibilities for glaucoma treatment," says Dr Muneeb Faiq, Clinical Researcher, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Experts also reveal that if patients are informed of the diagnosis and poor prognosis, they typically experience anxiety and fear. This creates a psychological double-burden; not only do they experience fear, inducing difficulties in daily life with reading, orienting, or mobility, but a negative prognosis typically has a severe emotional impact, leading to worries, anxiety, fear, depression, and social isolation.

"With the identification of stress as an intimate aetiology for vision loss, adjunct therapies like brain stimulation, meditation, relaxation response, music therapy, neuro-restoration, anxiety management, social support could find their way into management of ophthalmic diseases," said Dr Faiq.

VISUAL CHALLENGE

A study suggests that continuous stress and cortisol levels negatively impact eye and brain. Doctors say that stress is both a consequence and cause of the vision loss