How common are dry eyes?

[dave25]

I found this quote on eyecarebasics.com

"Although it is uncommon, dry eye can be a very uncomfortable situation to have to deal with. The causes of dry eyes can be biological as well as environmental. Eye drops for dry eyes are an obvious first line defense to help relieve symptoms, but there are also many other treatments available. Dry eye affects less than 200,000 Americans and is more likely to affect people over the age of 65. Although it is very rare, severe dry eyes can be very painful, and may require surgical treatment."

This can't be right can it?

[Rebecca Petris]

I found this quote on eyecarebasics.com

"Although it is uncommon, dry eye can be a very uncomfortable situation to have to deal with. The causes of dry eyes can be biological as well as environmental. Eye drops for dry eyes are an obvious first line defense to help relieve symptoms, but there are also many other treatments available. Dry eye affects less than 200,000 Americans and is more likely to affect people over the age of 65. Although it is very rare, severe dry eyes can be very painful, and may require surgical treatment."

This can't be right can it?

It's not just wrong. It's ridiculous.

Exhibit 1, Restasis sales (about $300million last I checked? not sure what it is now).

Dry eye is the most common complaint to take someone into an eye doctor's office.

The most conservative estimate is 4 million (that's the estimated number of Sjogrens patients in the US - commonly used as a proxy for how many people have serious dry eye). It's of course far higher than that since menopausal women and the elderly have significant percentages with dry eye too. Even LASIK dry eye is a widespread enough phenomenon that there are products on the market targeted specifically at the patients who have it.

[Rebecca Petris]

...By the way, eyecarebasics.com is NOT a legitimate eye care information site. It's just an advertising portal. In fact I think that's one of the ones that tried to get me to link to them. Not hardly.

allaboutvision.com or agingeye.net are much better if you're looking for broader eye information sites.

[dave25]

Thanks Rebecca, I thought that number sounded way off!

I guess that is just a great example of the importance of getting information from credible websites. I'm definitely not going on there again.

[indrep]

There was a Gallup poll in April of this year that shows that 90 million Americans have 2 or more symptoms of dry eye disease. Two or more symptoms is significant in that that generally describes moderate disease state. A significant number in the 70% range had the symptoms for more than five years.

[Gretchen]

As someone who worked at Pharma for a while, I can tell you that I just need to look at the healthy dry eye drug pipeline to tell you that this is a BIG MARKET.

[dave25]

There was a Gallup poll in April of this year that shows that 90 million Americans have 2 or more symptoms of dry eye disease. Two or more symptoms is significant in that that generally describes moderate disease state. A significant number in the 70% range had the symptoms for more than five years.

90 million, Wow! I'm not very good at math, but I think that's just a little more than under 200,000.

[Roderick]

I'm not sure it's that common. If it were, if the market for it was that big, every optometrist and ophtalmologist would be intimately familiar with it. As it stands, a very small percentage of them are. I think almost every group that defends the interests of a minority of people tends to inflate the percentage of the people that belong to them in order to be taken more seriously.

[Rebecca Petris]

I'm not sure it's that common. If it were, if the market for it was that big, every optometrist and ophtalmologist would be intimately familiar with it.

But they are - to roughly the same extent as other specialists in other fields are with the standard treatments for common diseases in their field. I would venture to say that nearly every optometrist and ophthalmologist routinely does artificial tears, Restasis, plugs and steroids... which are effective for mild/moderate cases. It's when the disease gets serious enough to send somebody to this website that the average doctor's skills and product knowledge become inadequate.

I think almost every group that defends the interests of a minority of people tends to inflate the percentage of the people that belong to them in order to be taken more seriously.

Pharmaceutical companies are not often distinguished by that type of habit. Most really don't put money into something that doesn't translate into major revenue.

[sanna]

90 million ! and more and more people are getting lasik. Everyone i know that have had lasik/lasek are using eyedrops years after surgery.

[indrep]

I'm not sure it's that common. If it were, if the market for it was that big, every optometrist and ophtalmologist would be intimately familiar with it. As it stands, a very small percentage of them are. I think almost every group that defends the interests of a minority of people tends to inflate the percentage of the people that belong to them in order to be taken more seriously.

The artificial tear business is $500 million annually, Resatsis is now approaching $500 million annually. Together thats $1 billion in sales.

As for eye care providers wanting to know more, they are learning more about it at every meeting I have attended the last three years. Its the "how do I make it better" that gets them.

[mike838]

My Dr claimes that at the national eye convention they claim that dry eye affects at least 1/3 of the us population to some type of variying degree. Knowing that he is a huge data guy I believe this is a true statement from him. He also has said it was not only until about 2 years back did eye drs at the convention have a seperate seminar on treating dry eyes as its one of there biggest complaints in the office. He has led me to believe people are truelly working on correcting people like many of us on here with as many treatment options they find possible(Not that that does not speak for itself). Its almost encouraging to here numbers like this not that anyone should suffer but it at lease makes you feel better knowing at a young age dry eyes are not unheard of.

[indrep]

A little more info:
30 million contact lens wearers - 75% say dry eyes affects their ability to wear the lenses.

Sjogren and Rhuematoid Arthritis patients - I think this number is around 8-10 million

Six to eight (varies by year) of the top ten most prescribed meds cause dry eyes.

At age fifty you make less natural tears and lipids. So you have less water on the eye and its evaporating faster. By 70 its half the volume of a healthy 20 year old and evaporating twice as fast. I think 10,000 people a day are turning fifty now.

Throw in patients with diabetes, other inflammatory diseases and patients who use glaucoma drops and it is easy to see how many people are affected.

[André Pereira]

I know this topic is old, but look at the market size that these pharmaceutical companies have.

The 100 largest companies in the world.
57 - Sanofi-aventis (eye drops them here is called Moura-Brazil)
63 - Novartis (Genteal)

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/18/...2000_Rank.html

It's eye-dry and ANY other disease is a big deal really.