Suicide Risk High Among Visually Impaired

New research has thrown up an interesting and also alarming fact – visually impaired people are at heightened risk of committing suicide, apparently. This is the conclusion Byron L. Lam, M.D., of University of Miami School of Medicine’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and his colleagues were able to draw after an exhaustive study.

The connection between visual impairment and suicidal tendencies was the adverse effect that the former had on a person’s life – their daily life, social life, mental activity and other related dependencies, according to the new study, which was supported by grants from the National Eye Institute and the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health.

According to the study, “Increased mortality risks also have been noted in adults with visual impairment and disabling eye disease.” During the course of the study, Dr. Lam and his associates sifted through the data of 137,479 people, data that had been collected in the form of national health surveys over a 10-year period between 1986 and 1996.

The modus operandi of the study was to collect demographic information along with details about visual impairment and other health conditions of the participants.

As the next step, the researchers verified, using the National Death Index, the number of deaths of participants until 2002. They employed the structural equation modelling method to determine the relationship between reported visual impairment and suicide.

In their findings, the authors noted, “The combined indirect effects of reported visual impairment operating jointly through poorer self-rated health and a higher number of reported non-ocular conditions increased the risk of suicide significantly by 18 percent.”

They went on to add, “In summary, we observed that reported visual impairment increased suicide risk, particularly indirectly via reported health status and health conditions. Our results suggest improved treatments of visual impairment and factors causing poor health could potentially reduce suicide risk.”

Visual impairment has been defined as blindness in both eyes, troubled vision in both eyes even with glasses, blindness in one eye and visually impairment in the other, blindness or impaired vision in one eye and good vision or not mentioned in the other.

The researchers said that the psychosocial and health consequences of impaired vision are quite tangible. These include trouble in executing daily routine activities, loneliness, cognitive disorder, poor functional abilities, heightened risk of accidents, poor self-image of health, and depressiondefine, among others.

However, they contend that although increased overall mortality risk has been documented in adults with visual impairment and disabling eye disease; the effects are only indirect, and subject to other factors like self-reported poor health and non-ocular conditions.

The researchers also pointed out the need to curb panic; and explain to patients that being blind or seriously visually impaired did not by itself add up to an increased risk of suicide. The findings and analysis were published in the July issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.