Middle-Aged and Older Patients with Visual Impairment Are More Likely to Use Psychoactive Substances

Psychoactive substance use to cope with vision loss has been documented in the general population. To explore whether a relation between psychoactive substance use and visual impairment exists specifically in middle-aged and older patients, researchers used data from 44,000 adults who completed a U.S. survey. Respondents were classified as visually impaired if they were blind or had substantial visual difficulty even with glasses (≈6% of the sample).

Respondents were assessed for use of a wide range of agents, including cannabis, cocaine, stimulants, alcohol, and nicotine. In adjusted analyses of middle-aged and older respondents (age, ≥50), use of psychoactive substances was more common in those with visual impairment (e.g., prevalence rati…