Visual impairment can increase the levels of disorientation and distress that a person suffering from dementia experiences, according to a new study.

Carried out by the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London and published by the Thomas Pocklington Trust, the study explores the impact that sight loss and dementia has on the lives of older people and their carers. It is believed to be the first to investigate what affect the combination of both conditions can have on a person.

Hour-long interviews with 52 people suffering from vision loss and dementia, family carers and care professionals found that the joint experience of both conditions led to disorientation and a sense of isolation, with many participants finding it difficult to recall the time and their surroundings, and unable to locate themselves using visual cues.

Researchers also found that sight loss professionals felt ill-equipped to deal with the needs of people with mental health problems.

The qualitative study went on to report that dementia care staff felt that the needs created by vision loss were at risk of being overlooked by the mental health services, and there was little evidence that showed joint working between sensory impairment and mental health teams.

Joanna Murray, report author and senior lecturer in social research at King’s College, said: “The combination of dementia and sight loss creates a profound sense of disorientation and provokes a great deal of distress, yet the role of sight loss in dementia is not being addressed.”

Reporting that visual hallucinations greatly increase disorientation amongst sufferers, researchers have called for investigations into the most appropriate ways to manage visual hallucinations in older people with combined visual and cognitive loss. They also highlighted the need for more studies to be carried out on the prevalence of visual impairment in dementia among older people.

Authors of the study include Ms Murray, Vanessa Lawrence, Professor Sube Banerjee and Dr Dominic Ffytche.

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• GPs could help increase sight test rate - 11/03/2009

lori hogencamp
January 3rd, 2009
My husband has the beginnings of vascular dementia and when he had his eyes checked the optometrist was surprised at how well his sight was. Every once in a while though his eyes go blurry and he gets double vision, it can last anywhere between a few minutes to a few hours. Also, his eyes get a very glassy look and when it's over he ends up with a severe pain in his eye. I was wondering if it could be from the vascular dementia or if it was something else to worry about? His blood pressure is normal and he has diabetes but his numbers are good.

renee
December 20th, 2008
This is of great interest to me. My mum had her cataracts done this past year and she had implants put in so she wouldn't need glasses anymore. Ever since this, bright lights bother her and she is having some sort of very bad dementia. Now I am wondering if this has happened due to the procedure? Any imput would be appreciated.

Farah Rizvi
December 10th, 2008
I am an optometrist, whose father is suffering from vascular dementia. Approximately three years ago, he had a cataract operation with IOL implant in the right eye. He is also a well controlled diabetic patient, and has ocular hypertension. On the day of his cataract operation his IOPs were not assessed by the staff at the hospital, EVEN AFTER REPEAT INQUIRIES BY MYSELF (naturally I attended the operation with him). After the operation when the patch was removed and vision was assessed, he had no light perception. The surgeon said his ON was still probably anaesthetized and that he should have LP later that evening, and if so, not to worry. His IOP was assessed then and it was 10mmHg. Later that evening he did have LP, with a fixed and dilated pupil, with a hazy view into media and beyond. Overnight he had extreme pain in eye (which he did not inform me of). The next morning when I visited him, he was in a very bad state. I called the hospital and they said to come in the afternoon - I was shocked as I was worried of an IOP rise in his eye. When we saw the surgeon his IOP was in the 50s and the surgeon was worried that the ON was probably infracted by now. Later that day, my father had NO MEMORY OF THE OPERATION THE DAY BEFORE. The entire family was shocked, it took me 40 minutes to convince my father that he had had an operation, and only after he saw his eye patch on did he begin to remember. His memory has deteriorated further ever since.

Brain scans have revealed that he suffered a stroke in the brain, which coincided with the date of the operation. I have always felt that the cataract operation he had caused an IOP surge, and as he was not given Diamox to take as a precaution following the operation (bearing in mind that he was an ocular hypertensive patient), this caused his IOP rise, brain stoke, and memory loss the very next day, and now vascular dementia. It has been a very difficult journey to come to terms with the situation for the whole family, and as an optometrist it is just an unbelievable state of affairs. I would welcome any comments, and I found this article very interesting.

Ian M. Creek
December 6th, 2008
I am an optometrist who works with patients with dementia. I am very interested in furthering my knowledge in this field.