Pediatric Eye Clinic

A new study shows that dry eye can affect your eyes by making them red and irritating. Dry eye can cause some to have trouble performing daily activities while others experience pain and suffer from debilitating depression and anxiety.

This is the first study to detail how life becomes more difficult for 30 million people in the United States with dry eye disease.

Dry eye is often a source of frustration for both doctors and patients. It is a complex disease that has many causes and often overlapping problems and interactions between them. Its causes and its effects are different in each patient. Some show no signs of the disease on diagnostic tests but feel very unwell. Others have positive dry eye results but feel great.

While everyone experiences dry eye differently, there are some common symptoms:

blurry vision
burning;
a dry feeling in the eyes, or
gritty or foreign body sensation in the eye.
Dry eye is due to insufficient tear production or tear quality cannot keep the surface of the eye properly lubricated. It usually happens when you have other conditions. There are triggers from the environment, such as pollution or the weather, that play an important role. Sometimes dry eye is caused by medications such as antihistamines, asthma medications, or birth control. The condition can be made worse by the use of the computer and contact lenses.

As a result, it is important that patients clearly communicate what they are experiencing and that ophthalmologists - physicians who specialize in eye surgery and treatment - need to have a better understanding of the impact dry eye can have on the lives of their patients.

In order to help both patients and physicians, the researchers who conducted this recent study surveyed 1,000 people with dry eye to assess their perception of their eye health and their overall health. The results were compared with the responses of those who do not have dry eye.

Dry eye patients rated their quality of life significantly lower compared to those without dry eye. Simple activities of daily life such as using the computer and getting dressed are more difficult for them. They report that the pain they experience makes it difficult for them to have positive and satisfying relationships with others. They also report experiences of increased anxiety, depression, and less good general health than those without dry eye.

The research was carried out by the Shire laboratory, which produces the drug Xiidra for dry eye. It was presented in October at the AAO 2018, the 122nd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. The researchers say they hope this study will help improve communication between doctors and patients.

"There are other good studies on the quality of life of those living with dry eye disease, although these are often anecdotal stories shared by a few doctors or patients," says one of the study's co-authors, Dr. Jessica T. Markowitz, PhD. "We really wanted to rate the experience of those who have this disease."

"It's no longer just about patients complaining about symptoms," adds research director Dr. Ipek Ozer Stillman, MBA, MS. "We have captured their experiences in a scientific and systematic way, we have recorded how the lives of those who have dry eye disease differ from the lives of those who do not."

Source: aao

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