Temperament and Character Personality Profile and Illness-Related Stress in Central Serous Chorioretinopathy

Abstract

Psychological stress is a risk factor as well as a consequence of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC). Impulsiveness, overachievement, emotional instability, and hard-driving competitiveness have been discussed as personality features in CSC patients. We investigated 57 consecutive CSC patients and 57 age- and gender-matched controls by means of the Symptom Checklist 90-R and the Temperament and Character Inventory. Somatic risk factors, illness characteristics, subjective assessment of severity of illness, and illness-related stress in different areas of life (work, private life) were evaluated. CSC patients showed significantly higher emotional distress as measured by the Global Severity Index. The CSC personality was characterized by lower scoring on the character dimension cooperativeness and the temperament dimension reward dependence. Cooperativeness as well as subjective assessment of severity of CSC has been recognized as significant predictors of illness-related work stress accounting for 30% of variance. Implicating competitiveness, hostility and emotional detachment, lower level of cooperativeness, and reward dependence support the existence of specific aspects of type A behaviour in CSC patients. Low perceived social support and loss of control may explain the significant contribution of this personality dimension to illness-related work stress. Treatment of CSC should thus incorporate psychoeducation about factors contributing to illness-related stress.

Maladaptive personality traits, psychological morbidity and coping strategies in chronic central serous chorioretinopathy

“…This finding is of interest, as ophthalmologists often assume and report stress-related and type A behavioural characteristics in patients with cCSC, and therefore, the advice on stress reduction to these patients appears common in their management strategies (Gemenetzi et al 2010;Rouvas et al 2014;Goldhagen & Goldhardt 2017). However, our paper indicates that psychological interventions targeting these personality features in cCSC, as was suggested in previous literature (Yannuzzi 1986;Conrad et al 2014), may not be useful.…”

Central serous chorioretinopathy: Recent findings and new physiopathology hypothesis

“…This trait is in line with type-A personality that is associated with opportunistic competitiveness, aggression, hostility and low threshold of frustration tolerance. CSCR patients are particularly at risk of the development of stress-induced vision threat in their working environment and may have low therapeutic compliance (Conrad et al, 2014).…”

Association of Central Serous Chorioretinopathy with single-nucleotide polymorphisms in Complement Factor H Gene in a Chinese population

“…CSCR itself is incompletely understood, with systemic associations, a multifactorial etiology, and a complex pathogenesis. Risk factors include genetic predisposition [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12], corticosterioids [13][14][15][16][17], and psychopathology [18][19][20][21][22].…”