Psychosomatic Medicine Tips for Better Browsing
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Rupolo, G.
Right arrow Articles by de Bertolini, C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Rupolo, G.
Right arrow Articles by de Bertolini, C.

Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 59, Issue 3 313-317, Copyright © 1997 by American Psychosomatic Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Treating myopia with acoustic biofeedback: a prospective study on the evolution of visual acuity and psychological distress

G Rupolo, M Angi, E Sabbadin, S Caucci, E Pilotto, E Racano and C de Bertolini
Department of Clinical Psychiatry, University of Padova, Italy.

OBJECTIVE: The effects of a visual training technique on changes in myopia, visual acuity, and psychological distress were studied in a controlled prospective study. METHOD: A group of 33 female students with myopia < or = 3.50 diopters (D) underwent visual training using an acoustic biofeedback technique. A group of 22 female students with myopia and a group of 27 students with emmetropia formed the two control groups, matched for school, age, sex, and refractive error. Manifest and cycloplegic refraction, visual acuity, personality profile (CPI), and psychological distress (SCL-90) were measured at the baseline (T0), at 10 weeks (T1), and after 12 months (T2). RESULTS: At T2, myopia significantly progressed both in the treated and in the untreated students with myopia. Visual acuity improved only in the treated myopia group (despite refraction objectively being worse). No differences were found among the personality profiles in the three groups. All items indicative of psychological suffering improved in the group treated for myopia whose visual acuity was ameliorated. CONCLUSIONS: The visual training technique led to no improvement in objective measures of visual acuity, but did lead to an improvement in one relatively subjective measure of visual acuity and a parallel improvement in psychological conditions. The students with myopia who were treated consequently had a greater sense of general well-being.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Br. J. Ophthalmol.Home page
S M Saw, G Gazzard, K-G Au Eong, and D T H Tan
Myopia: attempts to arrest progression
Br. J. Ophthalmol., November 1, 2002; 86(11): 1306 - 1311.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1997 by the American Psychosomatic Society