Association of central serous chorioretinopathy with type of personality, anxiety, and depression
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Dear Editor, We wholeheartedly appreciate the effort of the authors to scrutinize our article ‘Association of Central serous chorioretinopathy with type of personality, anxiety and depression’[1] and taking the time to point out the shortcomings in the letter to editor sent to you bearing Manuscript ID IJO_298_24, titled Concerns and observations on “Association of central serous chorioretinopathy with type of personality, anxiety and depression”. In response to the letter to editor mentioned above, we would like to clarify a few points brought out by you. ‘Diagnosed during evaluation’ in Tables 1 and 2 means these disorders (major depression and anxiety disorder) were present when we made the evaluation; that is, these indicate the acute/current/ongoing event. In other words, these patients were exhibiting symptoms of these disorders at the time of our assessment. In some cases, the duration of the psychiatric illness was acute, and some patients had history of recurrent disorder. The example elucidated here shows that 24.2% subjects were having major depression during our evaluation – this is the current ongoing episode. However, 16.5% patients had history of psychotropic medication intake, which would suggest past history of psychiatric illness as recurrence/relapse is common in these disorders.[2]Table 1: Characteristics of the patientsTable 2: Characteristics of the Comparison groupYou have suggested that an ICD-10 (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision) or DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) diagnostic terminology can be provided for better replicability in future studies. We would keep in mind the suggestion. However, for this study, ICD-10 coding of F32 for depressive episode and F41 for (other) anxiety disorders could be used for any reference.[3] We have not done a subgroup analysis between recurrent and acute and recent onset and chronic psychiatric illness, but it is a good suggestion and could be done in a study with a larger sample size. Regarding the query on treatment, pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy in a few cases were the standard treatment offered to the patients for their psychiatric disorders. However, the patients were not followed up longitudinally post treatment, which we recognize to be a shortcoming of our study, and we would undertake this project in the near future.[4,5] The P values were significant between CMT, VA with HAM-A, HDRS, and FTAS. We should thus have mentioned statistically significant correlation rather than strong statistical correlation as pointed out.[6] Thank you for pointing out the mistake in Table 1. The last few rows under the last subheading of ‘Associated history’ (coronary artery disease 27, hypertension 29, diabetes 35, and so on) are printing mistakes and should be omitted. We truly apologize for this inadvertent printing error. The other psychological tools as suggested by you can definitely be used for such studies.[7] However, for this study, we chose HAM-A and HAM-D, which are widely acceptable validated tools with widespread use, having good clinical application, and are free to use.[8,9] We plan to undertake further studies on this topic in the future incorporating factors such as sleep disturbance, perceived stress, and coping strategies as you mentioned.[10] We thank you for your criticisms and suggestions which would help us in our journey forward. Thank you for guiding us. Financial support and sponsorship: Nil. Conflicts of interest: There are no conflicts of interest.
Source: Indian Journal of Ophthalmology
Author: Soumen Karmakar
Institution: Government of West Bengal
Language: English
Subfield: Ophthalmology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4403850110