Main Article Content

Assessment of pre and postoperative psychiatric comorbidity among patients scheduled for elective cataract surgery in Lagos, Nigeria


AO Coker
MM. Balogun
BG. Balogun
BJ. Adekoya

Abstract

Objective: Comorbid psychiatric disorders have been reported to be associated with pre and postoperative periods. Studies on pre and postoperative comorbid psychiatric disorders among ophthalmological patients are scanty in Nigeria and other sub-Saharan countries. This study was aimed at determining pre and postoperative comorbid psychiatric disorders among patients scheduled for elective cataract surgery in Lagos, Nigeria.
Methods: Seventy-seven adult patients scheduled for elective cataract surgery at the ophthalmology clinic of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria were recruited and assessed 24 hours pre and 24 hours postoperatively for psychiatric morbidity by asking them to complete the twentieth version of the Self-rating Questionnaire and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.
Results: The findings of this study showed that only 5.2% of the participants experience preoperative mental illness and anxiety respectively while the 9.1% experienced depression. Post-operative assessments revealed that none of the participants experienced any mental illness or depression apart from 1.3% who experienced anxiety postoperatively. There were no statistically significant findings between the sociodemographic variables and anxiety, depression and mental illness.
Conclusions: The findings of this study indicated that there were comorbid psychiatric disorders among ophthalmological patients scheduled for cataract surgery in Lagos, Nigeria. Therefore, patients who are to undergo surgery should be screened for psychiatric morbidity. Likewise, adequate and appropriate surgical information should be given to patients to reduce associated comorbid psychiatric disorders.

Keywords: Psychiatric morbidity, preoperative, postoperative, anxiety, depression, cataract


Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 2467-8252
print ISSN: 2360-7793