United States: Doctors are unable to determine whether eye problems in GLP-1 weight loss medication users emerge from the drugs due to investigations about vision issues that affect drug consumers.
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Nine reports examined vision disturbances that appeared when patients used GLP-1 and suffered optic nerve adjacent blood vessel malfunctions.
According to study co-author Dr. Norah Lincoff, “We’re trying to elucidate if being on these drugs can increase your risk,” US News reported. Lincoff is a neuro-ophthalmologist and professor of neurology at the University at Buffalo, US News reported.
Nine middle-aged patients between 50-60 years received GLP-1 medication treatments either from semaglutide (Wegovy/Ozempic) or tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound) during the study, which was recently published in JAMA Opthalmology.
Nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) occurred in seven patients out of the nine who received this drug.
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The optic nerve sustaining adequate blood flow becomes impossible because blood vessels cannot deliver an appropriate amount of blood through NAION.
Permanent vision impairment occurs following injury to the nerve tissue that results in a sudden and lasting reduction of partial eyesight in NAION cases.
Dr. Bradley Katz identified the first case when a patient developed painless vision loss in their single eye following the commencement of semaglutide therapy.
Visual impairment manifested in a different eye when the patient discontinued the drug even temporarily before resuming its use.
The discovery caused Katz to activate his listserve network to ask fellow ophthalmologists if they had observed identical patient occurrences.
The study’s authors compiled reports from nine patients based on their queries about vision loss incidents, US News reported.
Nine out of ten patients showed symptoms of NAION, but one patient developed maculopathy, which caused visual field restrictions when using a GLP-1 medication.
The study authors mention that NAION incidents were previously connected to medications for erectile dysfunction and irregular heartbeat treatment.
The development of vision problems can be triggered by three frequently occurring chronic conditions: diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
“So, are these drugs increasing the risk for an episode of visual loss?” Lincoff added.
“The message to the patient is that we are still investigating if these drugs put them at higher risk of ischemic optic nerve damage,” he continued.