Behavior therapy may help prevent depression over vision loss

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Combining occupational therapy to help older people adapt to central vision loss with behavior therapy to keep them from becoming too isolated may prevent depression, according to a new study. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes vision loss in the center of the retina, eventually leaving only peripheral vision and making activities like reading and driving difficult or impossible. Most people do not regain their lost vision, and up to 30 percent of patients develop clinical depression, the study authors write in the journal Ophthalmology. “It’s not surprising that people get depressed.” According to his team’s results, even for people over 80, offering low vision rehabilitation and behavioral therapy can help alleviate that depression problem, Rovner told Reuters Health. via Health News Headlines - Yahoo News Read More Here..