The association between personality disorders/traits and violent eye trauma.

Aims: To determine the prevalence of various personality disorders in patients with open globe injuries caused by violent eye trauma.

Materials And Methods: One-hundred patients were divided equally to case and control groups. The case group was selected from admitted patients with open globe injury following a violent act. We considered open globe injuries not involved in violence as the control group. All patients interviewed using SCID-II questionnaire.

Results: The mean age was 30.7 ± 9.2 year and 34.4 ± 13.1 year for the case and control groups, respectively, (P > 0.05). The married population was more frequent in the control group (P = 0.027). Forty-three patients (86%) in the case group and 23 patients (46%) in the control group demonstrated some personality disorder (P < 0.001). In both groups, cluster B was most frequent. The antisocial personality disorder was more prevalent in the case group. (P = 0.046 and P = 0.006, respectively). The ocular trauma score (OTS) and the mean visual acuity was significantly worse in the case group (P = 0.028 and P = 0.044).

Conclusions: Personality disorders are probably important factors in those who acquire an open eye injury during violent behavior. This group had a poor visual outcome. We suggest that this population merits appropriate psychiatric consultation for detection of personality disorders.