Glaucoma Compliance

Glaucoma treatment is targeted directly at lowering eye pressure to prevent optic nerve damage and loss of vision.  In most glaucoma cases, the initial treatment is through the use of one or more eye drops. The most common types of glaucoma are chronic and require life-long eye drop treatment.

Your eye doctor’s role is to identify the very best possible medications and assess their effectiveness.  As critical, patients need to do their role and follow (or comply with) their doctor’s recommendations. 

Unfortunately, as many as one half of all glaucoma patients fail to take their eye drops correctly.  Some patients will take too much, too little or at the wrong time.  And other patients may forget to take them altogether. Unless eye drops are used correctly, glaucoma can actually become worse. 

Non-compliance with using eye drops is not unique to glaucoma.  Often, it is a reason WHY treatment is not successful and surgery is necessary.  Some of the reasons that may lead patients to poor compliance are:

· no symptoms of glaucoma                              
· inconvenience or expense
· benefit of treatment not apparent                       
· long-term commitment
· side effects of treatment (see Rx list)                
· challenge posed by travel

So how does a patient ensure or improve compliance? EDUCATION!  The most successful patient becomes very knowledgeable about glaucoma and its treatments.  The success increases even more when family members are educated and can help to support their loved one.  Keeping an accurate record of one’s medications, the intervals in which they need to be taken, number of refills, any gaps in use, along with related side effects will prove to be very useful for both the patient and their doctor.  Some eye drop bottles come with color coded caps to help with the identification of the drop.

In addition, patients do well while adhering to a “life-style” routine of taking their medications. For example, if you need to take your drops
                ·  twice a day – early a.m. and early p.m. (ex: 7a.m. and 7p.m.)
                ·  three times a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner, or
                ·  four times a day – breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime

Equally as important, is the honesty of the patient with their doctor about taking and administering eye drops correctly, along with reporting side effects. Patients do not need to be afraid to discuss ANY treatment issues with their doctor.  Eye doctors are committed to the prevention of any further vision loss and to provide you with the best possible treatment plan.