Risk of Glaucoma in Association with the Use of Second-generation Antipsychotics

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Patients with schizophrenia are advised to take antipsychotic drugs for at least two years in the first onset, and to maintain antipsychotic drugs for at least two to five years in the event of recurrence. Patients with schizophrenia often take antipsychotics for a long time, and some second-generation antipsychotics have anticholinergic effects. Pathophysiological mechanisms by which anticholinergic action increases the risk of glaucoma development or exacerbates glaucoma are known. On the other hand, open-angle glaucoma has no subjective symptoms in more than 50% of patients until the middle of visual field damage, so if clinically suspected and not treated, it is overlooked and there is a risk of missing the treatment period, leading to blindness. Considering that the number of elderly schizophrenia patients is increasing due to the development of schizophrenia treatment strategy, and glaucoma has a higher prevalence in the elderly population. It can be expected that the number of cases of glaucoma among schizophrenia patients will increase. Psychiatrists should check for glaucoma predispositions, such as the family history of glaucoma, and increased intraocular pressure, when treating elderly schizophrenia patients, and pay attention to the possibility of a link between the anticholinergic action of the second-generation antipsychotics and glaucoma.