Rehabilitation helps to prevent depression in AMD

A new study from the US shows that rehabilitation therapy can cut the risk of depression by half for those who have lost vision from age-related macular degeneration.

The Low Vision Depression Prevention Trial (VITAL), published in Ophthalmology,  involved a team of psychologists, ophthalmologists, optometrists and occupational therapists to test the use behaviour activation where people are helped to focus on activities they enjoy. It recruited 188 participants with bilateral AMD from an ophthalmology practice affiliated with Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. All had best-corrected vision of less than 20/70 and each had mild depressive symptoms, at risk of developing clinical depression, based on a nine-item depression subtest of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).