AbstractAim: To evaluate the association of stress with serum cortisol and serum homocysteine levels in patients of CSCR and comparison with age matched controls. Study design: Prospective observational, single centre study. Materials and methods: We have evaluated stress score, serum cortisol and serum homocysteine levels in 35 patients
(33 males and 2 females) of CSCR with the mean age of 33.14 ± 6.78 years and 35 age and sex matched controls.Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was calculated to correlate the stress score with levels of serum cortisol and serum homocysteine in both cases and controls. Results: Mean stress score in cases and controls were 13.11 ± 5.58 and 6.91 ± 4.30 respectively (p < 0.0001). Mean morning serum cortisol levels in patients of CSCR and controls were 12.88 ±
4.95 & 11.12 ± 3.39 (p = 0.0872) respectively and mean evening serum cortisol levels in patients of CSCR and controls were 11.10 ± 4.16 & 8.03 ± 1.94 respectively (p = 0.0002). Mean serum homocysteine levels in patients of CSCR and controls were 26.17 ± 11.52 and 13.06 ± 3.19 respectively (p < 0.0001). Stress score of CSCR patients found to be
weakly correlated with morning and evening levels of serum cortisol (r = 0.058, 0.084 respectively) and strongly correlated with serum homocysteine levels (r = 0.864). There was no correlation between the levels of serum cortisol and serum homocysteine with the severity and duration of CSCR. Conclusion: CSCR is a multifactorial disorder and
raised levels of stress, serum cortisol and serum homocysteine play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis.