Stress and Vision Fluctuations in Retinitis Pigmentosa

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.