Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Effects of corrective surgery on social phobia, psychological distress, disease-related disability and quality of life in adult strabismus patients
  1. Gokay Alpak1,
  2. Erol Coskun2,
  3. Ibrahim Erbagci2,
  4. Yasin Bez3,
  5. Seydi Okumus2,
  6. Burak Oren2,
  7. Bulent Gurler2
  1. 1Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey
  2. 2Faculty of Medicine, Department of Opthalmology, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey
  3. 3Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey
  1. Correspondence to Erol Coskun, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Opthalmology, Gaziantep University, 27310 Şahinbey, Gaziantep, Turkey; drerolcoskun{at}yahoo.com

Abstract

Background Corrective surgery is done for ocular alignment and disrupted facial expression in some cases of adult strabismus patients. The effects of corrective surgery on the presence of social phobia (SP) diagnosis, the severity of social anxiety symptoms, the disease-related disability and the quality of life (QoL) among strabismus patients have not been thoroughly studied yet.

Methods The study sample was composed of patients who had undergone corrective surgery for strabismus. Preoperative and postoperative evaluations made by using standardised measures of social phobia diagnosis (DSM-IV-TR) and severity (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS)), anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)), disability (Sheehan Disability Scale) and quality of life (short form-36).

Results Preoperatively, SP diagnosis was detected in 17 of 31 (54.8%) patients, whereas postoperatively 6 of 31 (19.4%) patients had SP (p=0.001). Participants showed a significant decrease in all subscale scores and total score of both LSAS and HADS compared with their preoperative scores. Significant improvements were observed in QoL and disability scores as well.

Conclusions Adult strabismus patients seem to gain benefits from corrective surgery not only for their ocular misalignment but also for social anxiety levels that may be associated with improvements in their QoL and disability levels.

  • Treatment Surgery
  • Diagnostic tests/Investigation
  • Cosmesis

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.