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Glaucoma Medications

Use and Safety in the Elderly Population

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Abstract

As with many diseases, glaucoma increases in frequency in older populations, and is very often encountered in patients taking multiple medications. While the exact mechanism of glaucomatous optic neuropathy (GON) is not known, intraocular pressure (IOP) is thought to be central to the process, and reducing IOP is the only known effective treatment. The newer definition of glaucoma is an IOP-sensitive optic neuropathy. While large, controlled studies have indicated that reducing IOP will slow the progression of disease, the contributions of other conditions and medications have not been adequately studied. As the adverse effect profiles of medical therapies for glaucoma have improved, use of these agents has increased greatly. This has resulted in a large number of older patients taking glaucoma medications. Since topical medications can easily be overlooked in a medical history, and are for the most part well tolerated, systemic complications from these agents can be missed. In addition to being a common disease requiring treatment, glaucoma is also a model system for other degenerative diseases, and many of the concepts originally developed in relation to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease are under investigation for glaucoma. These include approaches targeted towards neuroprotection and excitotoxicity.

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Acknowledgements

Supported in part by an unrestricted departmental grant from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc., New York, USA.

Over the past 3 years, Dr Tsai has received research funding and/or been a consultant/speaker for the following pharmaceutical companies: Alcon, Allergan, Merck and Pfizer.

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  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York, USA

    Elliott Kanner &  James C. Tsai

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Correspondence to James C. Tsai.

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Kanner, E., Tsai, J.C. Glaucoma Medications. Drugs Aging 23, 321–332 (2006). https://doi.org/10.2165/00002512-200623040-00005

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