Chatter: does anxiety raise IOP?
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3.2 years ago
engrav • 160
@engrav

Today took the 7CR to the docs office and measured IOP in the office with the 7CR.

See the graph of the day below.

Guess what time I was in the docs office.

enter image description here

anxiety self-tonometry iop:intraocular-pressure • 1.4k views
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Nice chart! These are links to the original blog posts I wrote on the topic. Your experience is very similar to mine.

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I know the term "white coat" is used with respect to high blood pressure readings too, and IMHO it is not fully appreciative of the situation, and is somewhat dismissive to those who do experience ongoing stress and anxiety.

It's not just going to the doctor's office and seeing the "white coat". It is anxiety and/or stress over many aspects of life, with one's health (and IOP/BP readings) being just one part of that. So it's not only that higher readings are seen in the doctor's office, but any time one is experiencing stress or anxiety. Which means it's not something to dismiss as a one-time, doctor-office occurrence.

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Thank you and good day from Thailand,I am taken back by looking at this graph, what a difference in the IOP rocketing sky-high?....So the way I understand it slowly begins to increase as you are nearing the Doc's surgery!.....Does this now mean we would all be similar?.... There is something about going in front of that Goldman, doesn't matter how I great I feel beforehand and I do look forward to going to get my Eyes tested bimonthly as we are keeping a close eye so to speak on any IOP movements.... Having Chronic Angle Closure with shallow angle chamber they want it to at 18/19... which is where we are ......I use Duo Trav once at night.. Fascinating graph and I feel you relaxing coming away from the Doc...and back to normality..

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I understand it slowly begins to increase as you are nearing the Doc's surgery!.

First, it is not a surgical appointment, just a regular doctor visit. Second, we cannot say if IOP slowly increases or quickly increases because we don't know what happens between 11:30 and 14:40 because there were no measurements. All we know is that at 11:30 his IOP was normal and when he checked it at the doctor's office at 14:40 it was elevated.

Fascinating graph and I feel you relaxing coming away from the Doc...and back to normality..

Yes, it is fascinating to see how white coat syndrome affects IOP!

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3.2 years ago
BrianB • 250
@brianb

Since I started doing home measurement back in April, it very quickly became obvious to me that stress and/or anxiety causes my IOP to increase, sometimes quite significantly. However, the eye that has had trab surgery doesn't react significantly. I might see a slight increase, but too much.

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