Specific Classes of Systemic Meds Linked to Increased Glaucoma Risk, Study Finds

While some systemic drug classes, like antihypertensives, increase the risk of glaucoma, medications such as antidiabetic drugs, lipid-lowering agents and gastrointestinal laxatives decrease the risk, researchers find. Photo: Justin Cole, OD, and Jarett Mazzarella, OD. Click image to enlarge. During a session last week at ARVO 2026, a team of physicians from China presented their findings from a target trial investigating systemic drugs.Emulations of randomized trials were created to compare target drug initiators with alternative systemic drug initiators. Researchers used the United Kingdom Biobank to collect their study’s data. Participants were chosen if they were prescribed medication from their primary care physician and had no diagnosis of glaucoma. With access to Chinese health documentation, researchers conducted an external validation in a Chinese cohort.A total of 225,363 participants were selected from the UK Biobank and 161,972 were selected for the Chinese cohort. Among the UK Biobank subjects, 5,601 glaucoma cases were reported, and 33 systemic medication classes were prescribed (821 unique medications). After performing emulations of trials, 231 met the criteria needed for the study. Here are the drugs that increased the risk of glaucoma:AntihypertensivesPsychotropicsCorticosteroidsAnestheticsAntithrombotic agentsAnalgesicsWhen comparing results to the Chinese cohort, researchers emulated 124,750 comparator trials. Here, researchers discovered glaucoma had the highest prevalence among patients prescribed antihypertensives.“Systemic medications may influence intraocular pressure, optic nerve perfusion and glaucoma susceptibility, but evidence from randomized trials is scarce and existing observational findings are inconsistent,” explained the researchers in their ARVO abstract. “These findings highlight potential mechanisms linking systemic pharmacotherapy to glaucoma susceptibility and prioritize drug classes for further mechanistic and repurposing research.”Original abstracts ©2026 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Click here for the source. Chen X, Wang Y, Wong TY. Real-world evidence on systemic medications and glaucoma risk: a target trial emulation. ARVO 2026 annual meeting. This article was developed by the editorial staff in conjunction with experts in the field. In the process, AI may have been among the editorial tools used to meet the goals of human editors, who approved all content.