Short-sightedness (or myopia) is the commonest eye problem in Ireland and is growing all over the world. It now affects up to 90% of young adults in Asia and up to 50% in Western countries. As well as the costs and frustrations of not being able to see well without glasses, myopia is also bad for the health of our eyes. As we get older our eyes are at risk of a range of diseases that can damage eyesight in a way that can no longer be corrected with glasses or contact lenses. These diseases include glaucoma and cataract. Even people with mild levels of myopia face double the risk of getting these conditions. Myopia dramatically increases the risk of other conditions, such as retinal detachments and myopic maculopathy. To put this into perspective, being short-sighted is as bad for your eye health as smoking or high blood pressure is for your heart. Currently, there are no established treatments to stop people from becoming short-sighted, and no treatments to stop from getting worse if they do. This project is designed to test the safety and the mechanism of action of a promising new treatment that might stop myopia getting worse. We will be testing a painless eye drop (a very low dose of a drug called atropine) that is given once a day. The purpose of this experiment is to see how the eye drops works and to make sure it is safe and acceptable to young people with myopia.
