Long-term effects of Restasis

[dlove]

Perhaps I've missed this somewhere within the text or on this site, but my question is: Are there any hard facts or data out there that show the longterm effects of Restasis or do we only have this info based off of studies on lab mice ??

[Rebecca Petris]

(dlove, I moved this to a separate thread.)

Depends how long term you're talking about. There are lots of studies on Medline - though as with LASIK the abstracts basically only tell is it's "safe and effective" . It was FDA approved in 2003, so true long-term data are not available.

Cyclosporine has been used in treating severe dry eye for a long time and most eyecare professionals won't hesitate to say they think it's safe for longterm use. Some questions have been raised about this form of it because of potential for irritation from the castor oil vehicle.