Glaucoma Anyone?

Hi guys, I've had multiple problems with my eye since I was born. I was born with a rare condition known as PHPV or Persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous. When I was 10 days old I had a surgery to remove the lens of my eye. This messed up the muscles in my eye and long story short I have a permanent lazy eye (which hasn't really bothered me). I had little vision in that eye and when I was older (about 13) I had another surgery to try and correct the positioning of the eye. It was unsuccessful and I ended up developing glaucoma, whether from the surgery or not is still debated. So now I am 20 and I have to put in eye drops every morning and every night. I had a surgery for my glaucoma in order to kill of the cells in my eye that were making the excess fluid that built up the pressure.

My question is, do you think that any medications that I take for my glaucoma could mess with my tinnitus or vice versa? I'm still fairly new to the tinnitus.

 

This would be a question for your doctor. Not this board.

If you do want my opinion - even though I don't know what you are taking (but assuming it is eye drops only) - then I think there is no connection between the medication and tinnitus.

There appears to possibly be a slight connection between development of eye floaters and onset of tinnitus. But, the medical community seems to be unable to explain why. My own take on it - for what it is worth - is that eye floaters may appear more commonly in people with slight auto-immune disorders (= inflammation of body tissue). Those auto-immune conditions may also affect the inner ear. Possibly.

I am not a doctor.

 

Thank you. That is all I wanted was an opinion.

 

How can I help you?

When it comes to medicine, there is a fine balance between offering advice and offering good advice. If you ask me.

I am mindful of what I know and... what I don't know.

If you need straight answers about tinnitus, audiograms, and treatments, then I can help. If you need an "attentive ear" - then perhaps - I am not the best option.

Take care.

 

@attheedgeofscience, I'm not sure that there is any question that we should consider "not for this board", it may just be a question where a board cannot give her a definitive answer. Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, doctors don't even agree on what could be ototoxic etc. I've had different answers on such things from two highly regarded MDs in the space of a day. Asking these kinds of questions here can at least help people collect questions to ask the doctors when they go and get them thinking about what to ask - that doctor time is always brief and precious - especially when the doctor is impatient.

That said, I agree, @derpytia, you should ask you doctor. But, you can also go google "ototoxic medication" and see if your medication is on that list. Other than that, what meds affect your tinnitus could depend on what is causing your tinnitus. If it's more of a circulation thing, or a noise exposure thing etc.

Disclaimer, I'm definitely not a doctor of any kind either (duh ), but I sure have seen a bunch of them. My lesson learned is be your own advocate and ask lots of questions, even if they're looking down their noses at you the whole time.

 

I don't know what drugs you are taking for your glaucoma, but I doubt that they caused the tinnitus. Can you tell us what drugs you take?

 

I take Alphagan (Brimonidine), Xalatan (latanoprost), and Cosopt (Timolol/Dorzolamide) for my glaucoma, though the Alphagan does me the most good compared to the other too. I don't see it on the ototoxic medication list (though I may have missed them if they are on there, it's a long list hahaa)

 

Associations between tinnitus and glaucoma suggest a common mechanism: A clinical and population-based study

Highlights
People with glaucoma are more likely to have tinnitus than those without glaucoma.
This relationship persists even after controlling for other explanatory factors.
A potential common etiological mechanism exists between tinnitus and glaucoma.

Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine if there is an association between tinnitus and glaucoma. We tested this by first completing a clinic-based cross-sectional questionnaire study in which we sent a series of tinnitus-related questions to glaucoma patients and healthy subjects, and then followed up with a large population-based cross-sectional study in which glaucoma and tinnitus were also assessed by questionnaire. For the clinical study, we received 209 responses from glaucoma patients and 109 responses from healthy subjects (primarily the spouses of the patients). For the population-based study, we evaluated 79,866 participants. Logistic regression models were used to test the relationship between glaucoma and tinnitus; the clinical study analysis was adjusted for age, gender, BMI, hypertension, and diabetes and the population-based study was adjusted for these same variables with the addition of socioeconomic status and subjective hearing loss. For the clinical study, glaucoma patients had an 85% increase in odds for tinnitus (adjusted OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.10 to 3.05). The effect did not depend on pretreatment intraocular pressure, and the associated symptoms were not pulsatile in nature. For the population-based study, glaucoma patients had a 19% increase in odds for tinnitus (adjusted OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.40). Overall, our results suggest that those with glaucoma are more likely to have tinnitus than those without glaucoma. These results provide hypotheses for a mechanism involved in both tinnitus and glaucoma. One possible mechanism could be vascular dysregulation due to impairment of nitric oxide production.

Full article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378595519303077

 

This is very interesting. I wonder how many of us have increased eye pressure. Thanks for posting.

 

I also have high introcular pressure (around 25) but I still dont use any glaucoma medication eye drops (doctors are comfortable for the time being). 1.5 year after my glaucoma onset my T started but I dont know if there is any relation between two..

 

Same. My intraocular pressures are around 27/28. My dad also has tinnitus and went blind in one eye because of glaucoma even though he was taking the drops. This puts me at high risk.

 

Yes glaucoma is in general genetically transmitted, but I dont have a glaucoma story in my family.. I think antidepressants that I used in the past for 3 years and stress caused my glaucoma. Although SSRIs are prescribed as something very safe by many doctors, glaucoma can be one of their various side effects. here is a link to an article about this:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5336262/

"Treatment with SSRIs was associated with greater risk of having a diagnosis of glaucoma, particularly in individuals with longer duration and/or higher average dose of SSRI. Our findings suggest that individuals receiving SSRIs treatment for extended periods of time and/or at relatively higher therapeutic doses should be monitored for symptoms associated with glaucoma."

 

Besides hyperactive events, many medications can cause eye and vision problems as well as radiation that causes overactive salvia issues. Excess use of many vitamins such vitamin A and NAC can too.

Then there's vision problems, joints can hurt, including the hips and shoulders. This is often inherited. I have much of the make -up that my dad did on how my body reacts to hyperactive moments - a quick sudden and brief reaction to emotions. Over use and long term use of SSRI's is not a friend with those with tinnitus, but a small portion of one pill, taken on a rare occasion can stop damage when a hyperactive event just happened.

I had read the study that @Frédéric posted a few weeks ago.

 

Due to Prozac (and propranolol) my eyes became blurred and at the same time I got tinnitus. I have a congenital cataract and this was made worse. I don't have glaucoma, but I do fear the worst especially as I am still on the SSRI.

SSRIs should be banned. They do more harm than good in the long run. At the very least they should only be used for most extreme of cases.

 

Hi,

I developed tinnitus in August this year, just come across this thread and thought I’d add my own response.

The last 2 eye tests I have had showed increased eye pressure although not Glaucoma, I had to go back for another test where they touch your retina with a special type of paper, the optician says the results were higher than normal but nothing to worry about; this was a couple of year ago.

Now however, after reading this, I’m wondering if there is a link between high eye pressure and tinnitus.

 

I have to have yearly check-ups because my eye pressure is high in both eyes. My latest check was 3 days ago, and I discovered that it’s gone even higher. One eye was 35, and the other was 34. The nurse doing the test thought it was the equipment and so tried a handheld device as well, but the measurement was the same.

I was told I’d have to see a consultant that day to discuss whether I should start treatment or not. The consultant in charge of me is one of my students which makes my life a hell of a lot easier. He requested a Goldman test, and this brought my pressures down to 30 and 28. After a thorough discussion, we concluded it was best that I didn’t start treatment, and that we would continue monitoring it on a yearly basis. This was based on my eye scan showing no signs of damage.

The added risk for me is that my dad developed glaucoma and went blind in one eye.

 

I have had a sensation of increased eye pressure on the side of my tinnitus since before my tinnitus started. My father has glaucoma. And here I am. Although I did get my eyes tested and doctor said no early signs of glaucoma.

I do have increased eye floaters though.

 

One can have glaucoma even with normal eye pressure due to issues with the optic nerve (based on optic nerve/OCT scan). For these people, their eye pressure needs to be around 8. One must take the visual field test and optic nerve (OCT) scan to confirm, despite normal eye pressure, to check whether there is glaucoma.

My ophthalmologist explained there could be a link between glaucoma (thought to be caused by vascular issues) and vascular tinnitus since the vascular system is intertwined.

 

Apologies for making a very late contribution to your question but it spurred me to join the forum in order to answer.

The short answer is a very definite yes.

The longer answer / aka my experience went like this.

I have had tinnitus (the bad kind) for decades but it used to be fairly predictable. I was recently diagnosed with glaucoma and put on Latanoprost drops (sp?). Within three weeks tinnitus spiked big time along with several other unpleasant side effects. I discontinued Latanoprost and tinnitus came back down after 8 weeks. Next I tried laser surgery which had no effect. I was recently, 3 weeks ago, put on Vyzulta eye drops which is essentially an altered Latanoprost formula. Tinnitus spiked again after 2 weeks and continues to spike until today. The good news is the Vyzulta works well with glaucoma, my eye pressure having dropped from low 20s to 14 but it's a really high price to pay with the screaming tinnitus.

For those that would suggest that this could be coincidental, I would accept that is possibly correct, as well as offer that my tinnitus has been very stable for a very long time. The only spikes I have noted for years were during periods of Latanoprost/Vyzulta usage starting in January this year until today.

As always your mileage may vary but Latanoprost in particular seems to have some unusual and unpleasant side effects if you care to read about it.

And finally your doctor may or may not put any credence into the possibility that glaucoma meds can alter tinnitus behavior. My glaucoma specialist had never had anyone report this type of change.

 

At my last appointment, about 2 months ago, my eye pressures were 38 and 36. I’m still classed as a glaucoma suspect and I’m not on any medication yet.

My consultant is also a student and friend of mine, so I’ve spoken with him a lot about it. He said he didn’t know of any link between tinnitus and glaucoma, but I didn’t ask about the side effects of the drops. My eye pressures go up every time I get them tested, but my optic nerve is still unaffected. I will have to have yearly checks for the rest of my life.