Psychosocial Characteristic of Strabismus in Adults

Lee, S Y; Kim, H C

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the psychosocial difficulties and the psychiatric state of strabismus in adults. Four questions were asked about psychosocial difficulties and evaluated the psychiatric state using the symptom checklist-90-revision[SCL-90-R], Korean standard version, for 32 adult patients with strabismus. The most important reason for strabismus surgery was to improve cosmetic appearance for interpersonal relations. Patients with strabismus experienced the most discomfort in school and social situations when making eye to eye contact and they perceived that a large number of people considered strabismus eyes strange. Among the 9 symptom dimensions on the SCR-90-R, the anxiety and phobic anxiety scores were significantly higher in the strabismus patients than the control group[p<0.05]. In conclusion, these results suggest that adult patients with strabismus experience various psychosocial difficulties and have greater anxiety and phobic anxiety, and therefore the psychosocial interventions for strabismus in adults are needed.