To determine the prevalence of various personality disorders in patients with open globe injuries in a violent act.

One-hundred patients divided equally to case and control groups. The case group was selected from admitted patients with open globe injury following a violent act. We considered open globe injuries not involved in violence as the control group. All patients interviewed using SCID II questionnaire.

The mean age was 30.7 ± 9.2 y and 34.4 ± 13.1 y for the case and control groups respectively (p>0.05). The married population was more frequent in the control group (P=0.027). Forty-three patients (86%) in the case group and 23 patients (46%) in the control group demonstrated some personality disorder (P<0.001). In both groups, cluster B was most frequent with antisocial, narcissistic, histrionic, and borderline personality disorders in decreasing order. The paranoid and antisocial personality disorders were more prevalent in the case group. (P=0.046 and P=0.006 respectively). The ocular trauma score (OTS) and the mean visual acuity was significantly worse in the case group (P=0.028 and P=0.044).

Personality disorders are probably important factors in those who acquire an open eye injury during violent behavior. This group had a poor visual outcome. We suggest that this population merits appropriate psychiatric consultation for detection of personality disorders.