Many medications list eye problems – such as dry eyes, blurred vision, or red eyes – but some medications have much more serious side effects on the eyes.
How to Monitor These Side Effects
If you are prescribed and taking a medication that has severe eye side effects, you should have an annual eye exam with your eye doctor to monitor your eye health.
In many cases, simply taking one of these medications is enough to have an eye health exam covered by medical insurance.
Your eye doctor will communicate any side effects to both you and the doctor prescribing the medication to ensure that the treatment is necessary and there are no other options that could have fewer side effects.
Medications with Major Eye Side Effects
Some medications that have major eye side effects are amlodipine, hydroxychloroquine, topiramate, tamoxifen, and ethambutol.
This is not a comprehensive list of medications which can cause serious side effects, but these drugs have been shown to result in eye problems more commonly.
Eye Problems Caused by Amlodipine
Amlodipine is a heart medication that is prescribed frequently for arrythmia treatment.
It can affect the eyes in multiple ways. It can cause damage to the cornea and cause whorl keratopathy or can cause damage to blood vessels in the retina and result in anterior ischemic optic neuropathy.
Whorl keratopathy is an uncommon condition that is almost always a result of medication use. This condition causes damage to the front of the eye and lead to blurred vision and permanently reduced vision.
Anterior ischemic optic neuropathy is a condition that can occur for several reasons that are all related to having blood vessels damaged in the back of the eyes.
The blood vessels become blocked and then are unable to provide oxygen to the retina in the eye.
This condition can cause permanent blindness if untreated.
Eye Problems Caused by Hydroxychloroquine
Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-inflammatory drug often prescribed for autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.
It can cause damage to the center of the back of the eye known as the macula. This damage is called bull’s eye maculopathy.
Bull’s eye maculopathy is a condition in which the retina around the macula is damaged and begins to degenerate. This causes loss of vision in the area and may lead to permanent visual field defects.
Eye Problems Caused by Topiramate
Topiramate is an anti-seizure medication that is also used in treatment of migraines.
It can cause the eye to change refractive power, notably shift to more nearsighted or myopic.
This change to more nearsightedness can be quite large and will cause blurred vision that is correctable with glasses.
These changes are sometimes permanent and will always require glasses to correct the vision.
Eye Problems Caused by Tamoxifen
Tamoxifen is a medication that inhibits estrogen and is used to treat some forms of breast cancer.
It can cause build up of crystalline deposits in the retina in a condition called crystalline retinopathy.
Crystalline retinopathy occurs when certain substances are not broken down correctly and accumulate in the back of the eyes.
These deposits can lead to blurred vision, visual field loss, or in some cases result in retinal detachments.
Eye Problems Caused by Ethambutol
Ethambutol is an antibiotic medication used to treat tuberculosis.
It can cause inflammation of the optic nerve in the back of the eye, known as retrobulbar optic neuritis.
Retrobulbar optic neuritis is a serious condition that can lead to blindness fairly quickly if not treated appropriately.
If the inflammation compresses the optic nerve, the nerve may lose oxygen and be permanently damaged.
Importance of Disclosing Medications
These medications are just a few of thousands of medications which have been shown to have eye side effects.
Because so many medications can affect the eyes, it is important to always inform your eye doctor of any medications you are taking, stopped taking, or will be taking in the future.
