[Psychological impact of cataract surgery in the elderly patients]

A standardized interview was undertaken in twenty patients, mean age of 70, suffering from cataract fifteen days following extra-capsular extraction of the cataract, and implantation of a lens in the posterior chamber. The patients were selected on the basis that they had no risk factors of socio-psychological complications either during the illness or post-operatively. The study investigated retrospectively the impact of cataract on different aspects of personality and life-style in these patients. We also studied the degree of reactive depression in the postoperative period, as measured by the Hamilton depression scale. Although the precise psychological correlation between the two time periods was not possible, half of the patients suffered from a major affective disorder, as classified by DSM-III, 15 days before the operation and a quarter of these were depressed after the operation. Our results show this condition to be associated with considerable but non specific socio-affective upheaval in these patients.