Emotional and cognitive features of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder and visual impairment

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the features of social and general personality functioning and emotional and cognitive changes in visually impaired patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Material and methods. Totally, 72 male patients were under observation. These included PTSD patients with ocular injury and either reduced visual function (n = 6) or total visual loss (n = 9), PTSD patients with no visual impairment (n = 20), and patients with ocular injury but no PTSD (n = 37). MINI PTSD module was used to determine whether a patient had PTSD. The PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) was used to assess symptom severity. Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP) was used to assess personality and social functioning, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), to evaluate depression and/or anxiety. Neuropsychological examination included the assessment of immediate memory, delayed memory, attention, language, and working memory. Perceived social support was also assessed. Results. Compared to PTSD patients without visual impairment, those with total visual loss exhibited a 61.4% reduction in personality and social functioning scores (p < 0.001, z = 4.465), 24.1% reduction in immediate memory scores (p = 0.001, z = 3.65), 21.1% reduction in attention scores (p = 0.047, z = 2.41) 50% reduction in perceived social support scores (p = 0.034, z = 2.53), and a 23.1% increase in depression scores (p = 0.021, z = -2.7). Personality and social functioning scores were 4.7 times lower in PTSD patients with partial visual loss than in those without visual impairment (p < 0.02, z = 3.371). Delayed memory scores were 51.7% higher in PTSD patients with total visual loss than in those with partial visual loss (p = 0.014, z = 2.82). Conclusion. The course of PTSD in patients with visual impairment or visual loss is accompanied by the development of a specific functional and psychological profile which is characterized by reduced social and general personality functioning, increased depression symptoms, and impaired attention, immediate verbal memory, and perceived social support.