Resident population in a psychiatric hospital: a vision health

Abstract

Introduction - In a pioneering attempt in Portugal to characterize the state of the vision of the resident patients of a Psychiatric Hospital, it tried to identify the existence of ophthalmic alterations in this population, that could compromise the functioning of the visual system and with negative repercussions in the activities of the daily life; to characterize and to correct ametropias; to characterize/to relate the pathologies found with the medication and to select/to direct the patients for Ophthalmology consultation. Methods - 254 resident patients in a Psychiatric Hospital in Lisbon had been examined, with diagnosis in the scope of mental health, the capacity of displacement, and some autonomy, in order to detect ocular anomalies for the study of the visual acuity, ocular movements, cover test, prismatic cover test, near point of convergence, stereopsis, chromatic vision, previous and posterior segment, ocular tension and refractive study, with 100 individuals. Results - The majority of the patient was of the masculine sex (64.2%). The most found psychiatric pathology was schizophrenia (47.24%). Only 20.87% of the sample already had been observed in an ophthalmic consultation. Significant alterations on the level of the previous segment had been found (33.86% of cataracts); on the visual acuity, especially for near, in OD e OE (26.38%). The refractive study resulted in the prescription of 75 lenses, which improved the visual acuity significantly for near, in the interval of the luminous perception to 6/10, diminishing the number of individuals of 50 to 3. Conclusions - This tracing allowed many of the founded alterations to be treated after the correction of the ametropias, thus allowing this population to use its vision in the best way, an increased of the quality of life of these patients.