What Are Beta-Blockers, When Are They Used To Treat Glaucoma, And What Are The Risks/Benefits?

Dr. Olivier answers the question: 'When Are Beta-Blockers Used In Glaucoma?'

ByABC News
December 23, 2008, 5:52 PM

Aug. 24, 2009— -- Question: What are beta-blockers, when are they used to treat glaucoma, and what are the risks/benefits?

Answer: Beta-blockers are a type of medication that we use in order to decrease the amount of fluid that the eye is making, and if there's less fluid then less fluid has to go out of the drainage system. Therefore your pressure is lower. Individuals that we do not want to put on beta-blockers are individuals who might have asthma or certain type of heart conditions or might have depression, because these side effects can occur with using a beta blocker.

Sometimes after we use the first class of medications like the prostaglandins, we find that the patients needs to have even lower pressure than we thought, so then we could go ahead and use the beta blocker. And we generally like to use the beta blocker in morning because at night we know that less of the fluid is being made, and also at night your blood pressure tends to be lower.