Systemic findings associated with central serous chorioretinopathy

PURPOSE: To determine systemic factors associated with central serous chori oretinopathy. METHODS: In a retrospective study, 230 consecutive patients with central se rous chorioretinopathy examined in a referral setting were compared with a historical gender-matched and age-matched control group of 230 patients wit h ocular findings who were examined in the same referral setting. RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 49.8 years, and of the control subjects, 50.0 years. The male-female ratio for both groups was 2.7:1. Pati ents with central serous chorioretinopathy were more likely to use psychoph armacologic medications (odds ratio = 2.6; 95% confidence interval = 1.30 t o 5.19; P = .0049) and corticosteroids (odds ratio = 3.17; 95% confidence i nterval = 1.30 to 7.70; P = .0067) and were more likely to have hypertensio n (odds ratio = 2.25; 95% confidence interval = 1.39 to 3.63; P = .0008) th an were the control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified psychopharmacologic medication use, cort icosteroid use, and hyper tension as factors associated with central serous chorioretinopathy. These findings reinforce the concept that stress and ad aptations to stress play a role in this disorder, The findings of possible associations between central serous chorioretinopathy and both hypertension and corticosteroid usage suggest that these modifiable factors may influen ce morbidity of central serous chorioretinopathy. (Am J Ophthalmol 1999;128 :63-68. (C) 1999 by Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.)