Assessing the impact of glaucoma and its treatment on the person

University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of visual impairment and blindness worldwide and in the United States. While glaucoma is usually a condition that affects both eyes, clinical assessments of its impact on patients in typical eye car settings are performed on each eye separately. This belies the fact that people affected by glaucoma function with both eyes, and treatments used to control glaucoma may impact on the person rather than only on the eye, even when those treatments are administered to only one eye. The overarching aim of the proposed research in this grant application is to assess the impact of glaucoma on the person rather than on the eye. Glaucoma has been associated with depression, and so we intend to evaluate depression in newly diagnosed glaucoma patients from the time of diagnosis through 9 years of follow-up during treatment, with respect to its prevalence and predictors. The typical approach to treating glaucoma involves frequent administration (often two or three times per day) of one or more topical medications (eye drops) to control eye pressure. Each type of medication has a unique set of potential symptoms associated with its use. We wish to relate reported ocular and systemic symptoms over time for a specific medication and after the addition of a second medication. The purpose of treatment is to control glaucoma, and the way that is typically measured is by means of a visual field test of each eye. Since a person with glaucoma uses both eyes to function, we wish to explore the relationship of visual function measures like the visual field test, when it is assessed using both eyes, with methods used to combine visual function measures taken on each eye separately, which is the typical test done in the clinic, to represent binocular visual function. All of these aims depend on data collected from over 600 participants in a clinical trial of initial treatments for glaucoma, the Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study. The proposed research relates closely with the goals of the National Eye Institute, to support applied clinical research concerning the blinding eye diseases, visual disorders, mechanisms of visual function, preservation of sight, and the special health problems and needs of individuals who are partially-sighted or blind.