Temperament Profile in Patients with Central Serous Chorioretinopathy: A Case-Control Study

Abstract

The patients with CSCR demonstrated less exploratory behaviors, higher risk avoidance, restraint, and low extravagance. They were more quick-tempered, disorganized, and easily frustrated, with a tendency to avoid negative and potentially harmful stimuli, less tolerance to frustration, higher level of insecurity, and higher level of anticipatory anxiety.

In patients suffering from idiopathic central serous chorioretinopathy, anxiety scores are higher than in healthy controls, but do not vary according to sex or repeated central serous chorioretinopathy

“… 9 Other risk factors are pregnancy, use of antibiotics, antihistamines, alcohol, smoking, and respiratory diseases. 10 – 16 Further, Conrad et al 17 showed that patients with CSCR were more stressed as a result of inadequate coping strategies and a higher incidence of physical complaints.…”

Psychological Factors Associated with Central Serous Chorioretinopathy

“…Exogenous steroids use has been reported to aggravate subretinal fluid accumulation in CSC patients throughout numerous studies from past to present [13][14][15]. Nonetheless, one of the most important predisposing factors yet to be described and investigated in detail are the psychopathological features such as specific personality traits, psychological stress, and psychiatric illness [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33].…”

“…Harrington and Zeligs suggested that anxiety precipitates autonomic vasomotor instability, which is another pathogenic model of CSC [18]. Thereafter other papers have focused on emotional distress, higher anticipatory anxiety levels, inadequate coping strategies with psychological stress, poor quality of life (QoL) status, and psychiatric disorders [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28].…”

“…Stressful life events in workplace and uncontrolled stress coping have a role in CSC, with patients characterized as being ambitious overachievers, perseverant and hard-working [22,23]. Moreover, emotional distress and high level of anxiety can appear as somatic complaints such as general weakness, gastrointestinal pains, high heart rate and arterial hypertension and respiratory symptoms [24,25]. These kinds of psychological status in CSC patients leads to overall lower quality of life compared to control groups [26], and the tendency to experience psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviance and hypochondriasis was increased in CSC patients [27].…”

Comment on: “Effect of a topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agent (0.1 % pranoprofen) on acute central serous chorioretinopathy”

“…Yanuzzi reported a high prevalance of Type A behavior for the first time with a study as 60 % in the CSC group compared with 40 % in the control group [2]. Piskunowicz et al characterized CSC patients as quick-tempered, disorganized, and easily frustrated, with a tendency to avoid negative and potentially harmful stimuli, less tolerance to frustration, a higher level of insecurity, and a higher level of anticipatory anxiety [3]. Drici et al investigated the reaction of patients with type A and type B behaviors to placebo and found more subjects with a behaviour pattern A (competitive and aggressive) (50 %) described as subjective side effects of the placebo than with type B subjects (17 %) [4].…”