Dry Eye Linked to Increased Risk for Mental Health Disorders

TOPLINE:
Patients with dry eye disease are more than three times as likely to have mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, as those without the condition.
METHODOLOGY:
Researchers used a database from the National Institutes of Health to investigate the association between dry eye disease and mental health disorders in a large and diverse nationwide population of American adults.
They identified 18,257 patients (mean age, 64.9 years; 67% women) with dry eye disease who were propensity score–matched with 54,765 participants without the condition.
The cases of dry eye disease were identified using Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine codes for dry eyes, meibomian gland dysfunction, and tear film insufficiency.
The outcome measures for mental health conditions were clinical diagnoses of depressive disorders, anxiety-related disorders, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
TAKEAWAY:
Patients with dry eye disease had more than triple the risk for mental health conditions than participants without the condition (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 3.21; P < .001).
Patients with dry eye disease had a higher risk for a depressive disorder (aOR, 3.47), anxiety-related disorder (aOR, 2.74), bipolar disorder (aOR, 2.23), and schizophrenia spectrum disorder (aOR, 2.48; P < .001 for all) than participants without the condition.
The associations between dry eye disease and mental health conditions were significantly stronger among Black individuals than among White individuals, except for bipolar disorder.
Dry eye disease was associated with two- to threefold higher odds of depressive disorders, anxiety-related disorders, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia spectrum disorders even in participants who never used medications for mental health (P < .001 for all).
IN PRACTICE:
“Greater efforts should be undertaken to screen patients with DED [dry eye disease] for mental health conditions, particularly in historically medically underserved populations,” the authors of the study wrote.
SOURCE:
This study was led by Aaron T. Zhao, of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and was published online on October 15, 2024, in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.
LIMITATIONS:
This study relied on electronic health record data, which may have led to the inclusion of participants with undiagnosed dry eye disease as control participants. Moreover, the study did not evaluate the severity of dry eye disease or the severity and duration of mental health conditions, which may have affected the results. The database analyzed in this study may not have fully captured the complete demographic profile of the nationwide population, which may have affected the generalizability of the findings.
DISCLOSURES:
This study was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health and Research to Prevent Blindness. The authors declared having no conflicts of interest.
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
 
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