Pharmacotherapy of intraocular pressure: part I. Parasympathomimetic, sympathomimetic and sympatholytics

Abstract

Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) has been recognized as the major risk factor for the development of glaucoma and a wide range of options are now available to reduce it: medical treatment, laser, filtering, or cyclodestructive surgery (alone or in combination). All these modalities act by decreasing eye pressure and, thereby, protecting the optic nerve head from a mechanic direct and/or vascular indirect insult. Topical medical therapy represents the first-choice treatment and, in most cases, it effectively controls IOP, avoiding the occurrence of further optic nerve damage. All medications lower IOP in two main ways: decreasing the production of aqueous humour or by increasing its outflow from the eye. Consequently, antiglaucoma drugs either suppress aqueous humour formation (beta-adrenergic antagonists, carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, and alpha-2-adrenergic agonists) or raise aqueous humour outflow throughout the conventional (e.g., pilocarpine) or uveoscleral (prostaglandin FP receptor agonists, and prostamides) route. In addition, fixed and unfixed combinations of antiglaucoma compounds have also been available for patients requiring more than one type of medication. This review, which is part one of two (please see Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy 10 (17)) briefly considers the characteristics of sympathomimetic, sympatholytics and parasympathomimetic commonly employed in the medical treatment of glaucoma, mainly the primary open-angle form, focusing the discussion on the clinical evidence supporting the use of these three classes of compound.