The Effects of 0.01% Atropine on Adult Myopes' Contrast Sensitivity

• Published in: Frontiers in neuroscience 2021-02, Vol.15, p.624472
• Main Authors: Cheng, Ziyun, Mei, Jianhui, Cao, Suqi, Zhang, Ran, Zhou, Jiawei, Wang, Yuwen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acuity; Atropine; Binocular vision; contrast sensitivity; Datasets; Eye; Myopia; myopia control; Neuroscience; Placebos; Polyvinyl alcohol; Statistical analysis; Variance analysis; Visual perception; Work stations
• ISSN: 1662-4548; 1662-453X; 1662-453X
• DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.624472

Atropine at a low concentration is considered a safe and effective treatment to mitigate myopia progression. However, the potential unwanted side effects of administering atropine at a low dose on visual functions other than best corrected visual acuity has not been investigated. In this study, we investigate the short-term (12,16, and 20 h) and long-term (1, 2, and 4 weeks) effects of 0.01% atropine (i.e., 0.1 mg/ml) on contrast sensitivity (CS) in patients with myopia. Thirty adults (23.33 ± 2.93 years old) with myopia between -1.00 and -6.00 diopters (D), astigmatism of -1.50 D or less, and anisometropia of 1.00 D or less, participated in this prospective, masked, placebo-controlled, randomized study. The participants were randomly assigned to receive 0.01% atropine or polyvinyl alcohol eye drops once nightly to both eyes for four weeks. CS was measured binocularly at baseline and 12, 16, 20 h, 1, 2, and 4 weeks after the first use of the eye drops. There was no statistically significant differences of CS found between atropine and placebo-controlled groups in both short-term and long-term. There was no statistically significant interaction effect found between the time and group. We demonstrated no significant deleterious effect of 0.01% atropine on adult myopes' CS.