Stress and Vision Fluctuations in Retinitis Pigmentosa
Completed
Conditions studied: Retinitis Pigmentosa
In brief
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) patients experience a slowly progressive, unpredictable loss of vision which eventually leads to bare or no light perception, posing a continuous threat to patients' independence. Negative psychological states such as distress, sleepiness, anxiety and depression are common in RP patients due to the nature of this chronic, disabling disease. Psychophysical vision measures are more variable in legally blind RP subjects than in normally sighted individuals, and RP patients indicate that variations in vision are often related to stress. The primary goal of this research is to examine the vision fluctuations within and between days among RP patients using vision tests self-administered by patients through their home computers, and determine associations with factors such as perceived stress, mood states, sleepiness, or light exposure. The administration of questionnaires will allow us to gain some insight into which underlying psychological factors impact certain vision measures, allowing the design of future interventional research to attempt to reduce such factors. The aims of many future treatment clinical trials for RP will be to improve vision and/or reduce the rate of vision loss; thus the sources that lead to increased variability of vision need to be identified and alleviated to enable precise evaluation of interventions and improve patients' quality of life.
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT00475254
- Run by
- Johns Hopkins University
- People needed
- 50
- Starts
- 2007-08-01
- Expected to finish
- 2011-04-01
- Last updated by the study team
- 2011-04-06
Who can join
Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.
You may qualify if…
- Patients with diagnosed retinitis pigmentosa
You may not qualify if…
- Very severe vision loss (i.e., light perception only) who may have difficulty performing the vision tests with their home computers
- Unable to use a PC (Personal Computer)
- Non-English speaking
- Unable to communicate experiences
- Out of town for more than one week during a 2 month period when taking the PC-based tests
Where it is running
- Johns Hopkins WiImer Eye Insitute's Lions Vision Center — Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
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