Researchers in Montreal have found that elderly patients with asthma and other chronic breathing difficulties who take preventative medication face an increased risk of developing cataracts, according to a report in this month’s European Respiratory Journal.
Senior author Dr Samy Suissa, an epidemiologist at McGill University Health Centre, said: ‘We found that people over the age of 65 who take a cortisone-like medication called inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) to lower their risk of asthma or COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] attacks are actually raising their risk of developing cataracts.
‘This important information to physicians and patients will help in the management of patients using these drugs.’
The researchers looked at 14 years of diagnostic and prescription information from a provincial health database, studying more than 100,000 patients with asthma or COPD with the average age of 78, over 10,000 of whom were subsequently diagnosed with severe cataracts.
They found a 24 per cent increase in the risk of developing a severe cataract for those subjects taking a typical daily dose of ICS. Even at half the daily dose, the researchers found a small increase in the risk of cataracts.
‘We recommend that elderly asthma sufferers keep using these very effective medications, but make efforts to reduce the dose of ICS as much as possible,’ said Dr Suissa.
However, the limited efficacy of ICSs in COPD, means he would recommend avoiding their use altogether.
Asthma UK told OpticianOnline: ‘Several studies have suggested the possibility of a very slight increased risk of the development of cataracts in elderly people who have used inhaled steroids.
‘As with use of all medicines, careful attention needs to be paid to the risk versus benefit argument and it’s as likely that any risk can be reduced by always using the lowest possible dose of medication to control the condition.’
McGill University Health Centre
Asthma UK
European Respiratory Journal