Visual impairment has many negative impacts on physical and psychological health. According to a new study, loss of vision can even increase the risk of suicide.

Summary

Loss of vision, even if it is not total, has a number of impacts on health, especially when it comes to psychosocial issues. A new study shows that people who have problems with their eyesight are at increased risk of suicide.

Introduction

People who have some degree of visual impairment are prone to problems with the activities of daily living, social isolation, dependency on others, depression and also have an increased risk of accidents. Previous research has also shown that visual impairment is linked to increased risk of mortality. There have also been individual case reports that visual impairment carries an increased risk of suicide. However, such cases are rare and we do not know whether loss of vision is a real suicide risk at the group level. We also don't know whether any suicide risk is linked directly to loss of vision or to accompanying chronic diseases.

What was done

Researchers at the University of Miami and elsewhere looked at data from national health surveys of nearly 140,000 participants. They looked at medical data, including information on visual impairment, and deaths, including death by suicide.

What was found

During 11 years of follow up, on average, there were 200 deaths by suicide. Analysis showed that those with visual impairment and poor self-rated health and with other health problems were more at risk. These factors increased the risk of suicide among those with a visual impairment by 18 percent compared to the general population.

What this study means

The researchers suggest that those with loss of vision are vulnerable to all kinds of problems that might increase depression and risk of suicide. More could therefore be done to monitor their physical health and psychosocial factors such as social isolation.

Source

Reported Visual Impairment and Risk of Suicide BL. Lam, SL. Christ,  et al., Archives of Ophthalmology, July 2008, vol. 126, pp. 975--980