Anxiety and Depression may be tied to dry eye disease

Researchers examined records of 460, 611 patients in a retrospective case-control study to determine the odds ratios for dry eye disease and anxiety and depression. There were 7,207 patients with dry eye syndrome while 20,004 had anxiety and 30,100 had depression. Researchers then adjusted the odds ratio between dry eye and anxiety and that came out to be 2.8 and the odds ratio for dry eye disease and depression was 2.9. Researchers felt that these statistics called for advising primary care physicians to consider dry eye disease as a chronic medical illnesses that can have an effect on psychiatric health. With this information in mind, primary care providers should consider further screening and referrals as needed. There are many treatments available for dry eye syndrome including eye drops, punctal plugs and even nutritional supplements like VisiVite's Dry Eye Relief TG-1000. This formula encourages peak delivery of Omega-3's to the lacrimal glands to ease inflammation and promote healthier tear production.*