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| Vol. 23, No. 18 |
| October 1, 2001 |
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Drops May Offer Relief for Women with Dry Eye By ANISSA ANDERSON ORR Baylor College of Medicine While menopause causes mood swings in most women, others cannot shed a tear.
Hormonal changes associated with this stage of life can cause some women to develop dry eye, a condition in which the eyes become dry and itchy, and in some cases, cease to produce tears.
Dr. Stephen Pflugfelder, a professor of ophthalmology at Baylor College of Medicine, said the problem can be more than simply irritating.
"Women who have severe cases of dry eye feel as if they have grains of sand in their eyes," Dr. Pflugfelder said. "They really can't function. They almost have to stay in a dimly lit room and not go out. Even air drafts cause them pain."
Baylor is using cyclosporin eye drops to treat dry eye as part of a six-month, multicenter, phase III clinical trial. The trial is open to postmenopausal women over age 65, or men or women who have Sjogren's syndrome, an autoimmune disease that causes the eye to become inflamed and dry.
Cyclosporin is an anti-rejection drug, traditionally prescribed to patients with heart and kidney transplants. The drug works by reducing inflammation that causes the surface of the eye to become dry.
Currently, only over-the-counter lubricants are available to help relieve dry eye irritation. While such medications help relieve mild dry eye caused by staring at a computer, dry air in airplanes or dusty environments, they do not help people with severe dry eye.
"People with severe dry eye cannot produce tears at all to protect them when something scratches their eyes, or dust or other types of debris gets in their eyes," Pflugfelder said. "If not treated, dry eye can cause cloudiness or ulcerations of the cornea, ultimately leading to blindness."
Dr. Plugfelder is also researching other anti-inflammatory drugs to treat dry eye at Baylor's Ocular Surface Disorders Center.
For more information about the cyclosporin trial, call (713) 798-4123.
©2006 Texas Medical Center E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/10_01_01/page_17.html |