SSRIs and Optic Neuropathy

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I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this but last year we took our then 14 yr old daughter off SSRIs so she has been drug free for about a year.

Very recently she's started squinting so we took her for an eye test and she's been diagnosed with optic neuropathy with ocular dominance of her right eye over her left.

No cause has been suggested but a cursory review of literature suggest giving children SSRIs in childhood can increase the risk of ocular neuropathy 300 fold.

I am furious our paediatrician never warned us of this risk when prescribing SSRIs to a 6 yr old. At the very least we could have conducted annual eye tests (which BTW nobody told us was necessary including her GP).

I am just wondering if anyone else had this experience relating to exposure to SSRIs being linked to eye damage to themselves or their children?

Why doesn't this surprise me. Kids, shouldn't be taking drugs, a childs brain is still in development and is not finalized. I believe the scientists recently proved that toxicological brain injury is the main physical causation of ASD. Parents really should research a drug thoroughly before they decide to make a new guinea pig. Doctors rely on you unwavering acquiescence to their authority. You should always be ready to challenge a doctor to explains themselves, being at atleast fairly preppared on the medical issue at hand before even conversing with them.

I don't disagree but it would be nice if the doctors could inform parents of the risks rather than dispensing drugs like they selling lollies.

I don't disagree either, doctors are state sanctioned peddlers of synthetic chemical drugs that are not as safe as they'd have you believe. The fact of the matter is the world is a dangerous place, its not Disney land. our air, sea, lands is riddled with chemical pollutants, a side effect of big pharma and other industries. Maybe I'm paranoid, or maybe I'm being realistic skeptical, we just have to call it as we see it, and hope for the best.

I’m right-eye dominant, but I don’t squint. I never was prescribed anything—except Ritalin when I was 13.

How does your daughter’s ocular neuropathy affect her everyday life? Is the squinting quite evident? Has she experienced loss of vision and of seeing colors? How is she in general?

I’m not really into meds myself unless they are absolutely necessary.

I’m sorry your daughter has had permanent side effects from medication.

She was on SSRIs and Ritalin from age 8 - 14. I've posted info on the parent forum on how she was medicated to cope with the stress of mainstream school.

She's been drug free for 12 months now. The squinting started from last year. It means when she closes her right her eye she cant read using the left and she says everything looks like a blur. Her teacher noticed the squinting which is what prompted us to get her eyes tested. When she had her last eye test at 6 she had 20/20 vision in both eyes. The optician thinks she is is overcompensating with the right eye.

My guess is her medical doctor and paediatrician never kept up with the medical literature on risk factors of giving drugs to children. With SSRIs there are clear instructions not to prescribe to children under 12 yet we were assured the dosage was never going to a problem.

I'm hoping the eye specialist we made an appointment will be able to give us advice on how to retrain the left eye

I am not sure, however, i wonder with regards to ASD causes.

There is a lot of speculation as to the cause, although i note that clinical psychologists during the diagnosis process always need to know as to whether the person being evaluated was born prematurely, had suffered problems at birth and whether the person being diagnosed suffered any form of head injury or trauma during the developmental years.

I believe that this is because that brain damage for various reasons is perhaps considered one of the causes as to why peoples brains end up developing abnormally.

I speculated that Brain damage caused by problems during the pregnancy, problems during the birth and problems during early development, especially if unilaterally present could cause unilateral problems with eyesight.

I also speculate that the anxiety caused by increased stress caused by the abnormally extra number of brain cells in Autistic people's brains (which has been proven by neurologists using fMRI scans), causes an increase in sense information and thus an increase in stress hormones, which if present for long enough will lead to the part of the brain that deals or regulates stress hormones and emotion getting damaged, which in turn tends to cause damage to one side of the brain that deals with stress hormones. Perhaps this causes abnormalities in eye sight as well?

I am not sure, as to whether damage to one side of the brain would then cause damage to one side of the eyesight.
I understand not all things in biology follows simple laws of cause and effect, although some conditions do.

On the bright side, your kid has 20 / 20 eye sight. A lot of kids do not.

I myself have a stigma on one of my eyes. Apparently i also blink a great deal less than normal people do.
I attribute this to growing up doing karate (don't want to get punched or kicked) and 100 cc go kart racing (don't want to crash or let people over take me), so from an early age (starting around 8 years old) I learnt to blink less.

I hope your kid will be fine.

Sorry to hear this, cd.

My daughter's vision is at risk and closely monitored with annual eye tests by an ophthalmologist because of her medication but it's not an SSRI, it's an immunosuppressant. I haven't heard of risk from SSRI but it's unfortunate that you didn't know either, until this happened.

After my first stroke I had significant third nerve palsy, diplopia (double vision), and one eye that was turned. Part of my VRT involved visual rehab with patches like you describe. I had to look through a pinhole in paper lenses to force my eyes to open / work / look straight ahead. It took years but I was successful at regaining my driving licence after four years of not driving, with the use of prism lenses. I had enough neuroplasticity to recover. Now I only experience double vision occasionally.

I hope your daughter will be able to recover without any lasting deficit to her vision.

Good luck.