Association between visual impairment and psychosis: A longitudinal study and nested case-control study of adults

Theories propose that visual impairment might increase the risk of psychosis, and vice versa. We aimed to investigate the relationship between visual impairment and psychosis in the UK Biobank cohort.

In a nested case control study of ~116,000 adults, we tested whether a Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder (SSD) diagnosis as exposure was associated with visual impairment. We also tested longitudinally whether poorer visual acuity, and thinner retinal structures on Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scans in 2009 were associated with psychotic experiences in 2016. We adjusted for age, sex, depression and anxiety symptoms; and socioeconomic variables and vascular risk factors where appropriate. We compared complete case with multiple imputation models, designed to reduce bias potentially introduced by missing data.

People with visual impairment had greater odds of SSD than controls in multiply imputed data (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] 1.42, 95 % Confidence Interval [CI] 1.05-1.93, p = 0.021). We also found evidence that poorer visual acuity was associated with psychotic experiences during follow-up (AOR per 0.1 point worse visual acuity score 1.06, 95 % CI 1.01-1.11, p = 0.020; and 1.04, 95 % CI 1.00-1.08, p = 0.037 in right and left eye respectively). In complete case data (15 % of this cohort) we found no clear association, although confidence intervals included the multiple imputation effect estimates. OCT measures were not associated with psychotic experiences.

Our findings highlight the importance of eye care for people with psychotic illnesses. We could not conclude whether visual impairment is a likely causal risk factor for psychosis.