The Relationship of Dry Eye Disease with Depressive Symptom Scores and Insomnia

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a difference in terms of depressive symptom and insomnia scores between patients with dry eye disease and healthy controls. Materials and Methods: Forty patients who applied to ophthalmology outpatient clinic with dry eye symptoms and had no history of chronic disease or drug use and who were diagnosed with dry eye for the first time in our clinic, and 34 healthy controls were included in the study. Beck Depression Inventory in order to evaluate the depressive symptom scores and the Insomnia Severity Index scores for the severity of insomnia were analyzed. Independent samples t-test was used to determine whether there was any difference between the groups. Results: The depressive symptom score was 14.5 +/- 6.8 and insomnia severity score was 13.4 +/- 5.2 in individuals with dry eye disease; while depressive symptom and insomnia severity scores in the control group were 5.5 +/- 1.8 and 4.5 +/- 2.2, respectively. The difference between the groups was statistically significant (p=0.001). Conclusion: It is thought that revealing the relationship between dry eye disease and depressive symptoms and insomnia is important in understanding the pathophysiology of these diseases, as well as the multisystemic approach including evaluation of comorbid psychological/psychiatric conditions besides the objective symptoms of the disease, will have a positive effect on the quality of life of individuals.