GERMANY In a recent study, scientists from Germany and USA, argue that while persistent psychological stress is an obvious consequence of losing vision, it may actually also cause vison loss.
The research was published in the EPMA journal which is a highly reputed international of predictive, preventive and personalized medicine. These scientists advocate that perpetual stress with consistently high levels of stress hormone release of cortisol and endothelin can have detrimental impact on the visual system of the eye and brain. Many forms of vision loss are considered to be irreversible and often progressive which prompts the patient to go through mental stress due to anxiety and fear of going completely blind which may even lead to depression. This ensues increase in the pressure inside the eyes which further aggravates the disease condition.
Prof. Bernhard Sabel, Director of the Institute of Medical Psychology in Magdeburg University, Germany, lead author of the paper said, “when analyzing the world literature there is clear evidence of a psychosomatic component to vision loss as stress is one of the main causes and not just the results of the fear of blindness.” Prof. Sabel is the. He also runs the center for vision restoration – The Savir-Center for vision Restoration Centre in Germany. Dr. Sabel emphasized that more than the eye, it is the brain that is involved in vision loss and that this all important organ is often ignored by the treating doctors. In order to educate scientists and doctors about brain involvement in vision loss, they will be presenting their intriguing findings at the Low Vision and Brain Conference to be held in November in Berlin. Vision scientists from all over the world will attend this conference.
One of the investigators of the study also said, We have to recognize that the behavior and the words of the treating doctor can have far-reaching consequences for the prognosis of vision loss. If a patient is told that the prognosis is poor and that they should be prepared to become blind one day that this is actually not true. But, what´smore: the ensuing fear of going blind is a psychological double-burden which worsens the disease condition.
With the identification of stress as one of the major causes of vision loss, adjunct therapies like brain stimulation, relaxation response, neuro-restoration, anxiety management, and social support should be taken more seriously and find their way into the clinical management of eye diseases.
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