Seonyong Yang
Research Mentor(s): David Fresco
Mentor Department: Psychiatry
Authors: Krystal Kao, Jessica Stout, John Yang, Alex Zmejkoski, Jacob Kraft, K. Thiran Jayasundera, David Fresco
Session: Session 2 (10:00am – 10:50am)
Presentation Type: Poster 104
Abstract
Approximately 250M individuals across the world struggle with blindness or uncorrectable low vision. Patients with inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) constitute ~5M of these individuals and are expected to be legally blind by age 45-50. At the present time, novel gene therapy treatments have yet to adequately address the needs of patients with IRDs. Therefore, these patients exhibit psychological distress associated with the anticipation of- and experience of eventual blindness that may lead to clinically significant anxiety and/or depression. The purpose of this pilot study is to gain understanding of the psychological impact on patients with IRDs as a first step in developing cognitive-behavioral interventions to target and address their psychological distress.
