Table 2.

Interview script for focus groups

1.	Tell me about your vision. Are there “good vision days”? Are there “bad vision days”? What do you think are the factors that may influence a “good or bad vision day”? Direct discussion to stress (as well as mood states, anxiety, depression, sleepiness). Lots of people have stress and it affects them in different ways.
2.	Stress is highly prevalent among many people in our country. How do you know you are having a stressful day? What are the physical or emotional signs and symptoms? How often are you stressed?
3.	Factors that may influence perceived stress or negative psychological states: RP-related (length of diagnosis, knowledge of RP-related visual symptoms and prognosis), coping strategies (use of adaptive devices and techniques, social support from friends or family), or occurrence of major life events.
4.	Your health care providers should provide you with the tools to take better care of yourself through self healing (in terms of quality of life and visual function status). Lead to discussion to stress reduction. What do you currently do to relieve stress? What would you like to learn to do? Or would you like to learn better/more effective techniques to release stress? Does anyone have any personal experiences they can tell us about any types of stress reduction? Is there any reason why stress relief approaches wouldn't work?
5.	Is there anything that we haven't asked, or that hasn't been discussed, about the variability of vision and influencing factors (or stress and its reduction) that would be important for us to know? Probe: Are there things about RP or stress that you do not understand?