A Psychological Perspective of Eye Floaters

Abstract

Patients experiencing flashes and spots in their perceptive fields often resort to consulting an ophthalmologist without finding an answer, mainly because these symptoms are not necessarily associated with pathology of the eye. The purpose of our research study was to understand the experience of these patients, differentiate among them, and propose different ways of treating them. We carried out an eye examination and echography, individual semistructured interviews, and dependency grids with 11 patients at the ophthalmology department of a public hospital in northern Italy. We found that individuals' ways of experiencing and reacting to eye floaters might be different and might depend on the perception of the disease, the personal explanation, the solutions tried, the trust placed in medicine, self-construction, and the dispersion of dependency. Understanding the experiences of patients suffering from eye floaters might help health care professionals to personalize their approaches to these patients.

When Health Is an Attitudinal Matter

“…In a previous study one of us proposed that the different ways in which people experience illness depend on their ways of being and their tendency to confide in themselves or in others for help (Cipolletta, Beccarello, & Galan, 2012). The basic assumption of that study was that illness is linked to social and personal processes that govern the maintenance of our identity.…”

“…This path is similar to Ginzburg et al's (2011) category of disconnection, that is, the tendency to have both low attentiveness and low sensitiveness. This is a precarious position because it may prevent people from recognizing and caring about some illness (see, Cipolletta et al, 2012).…”

Illness trajectories in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: How illness progression is related to life narratives and interpersonal relationships

“…The theoretical framework drawn on for this study is the constructivist perspective, which assumes that each person makes sense of events in a different way (Kelly, 1955); therefore, a disease can take on multiple meanings and a person's health status may change accordingly (Cipolletta & Amicucci, 2015;Cipolletta, Beccarello, & Galan, 2012;Cipolletta, Consolaro, & Horvath, 2014). For this reason, personal meanings and the distribution of dependencies were explored.…”

“…Therefore, the question is how people distribute their dependencies when asking one person for something and another for something else. Previous research has shown that the distribution of dependency is implicated in how a person lives and copes with illness (Cipolletta & Amicucci, 2015;Cipolletta et al, 2012), and gives and receives care (Cipolletta, Marchesin, & Benini, 2015;Cipolletta, Shams, Tonello, & Pruneddu, 2013). More specifically, a higher distribution of dependencies enables patients to cope better with illness because they can reconstrue their personal role and accept help.…”

Illness trajectories in patients suffering from leg ulcers: A qualitative study

“…This question may be considered in relation to patients' choice of confiding in themselves or in others for help. It deals with the distribution of dependency and it is involved in the way the person lives and copes with illness (Cipolletta et al, 2012(Cipolletta et al, , 2013aTalbot et al, 1991) and gives and receives care (Cipolletta et al, 2013b(Cipolletta et al, , 2015.…”