Setting Appropriate Treatment Expectations
As you know, the success of your patient’s RESTASIS® therapy will depend in part on their understanding of what to expect. Key topics and information to discuss with your patient are provided below.
Setting Expectations:
For Treatment of a Chronic Condition
Chronic Dry Eye isn’t like a headache, which patients relieve with an aspirin until it goes away. Chronic Dry Eye is a chronic condition, and patients need to manage it on an ongoing basis.
Artificial tears can provide temporary relief, but with RESTASIS® Ophthalmic Emulsion, patients can enhance their natural ability to produce tears, if they stay with it — and make more of their own tears again.
For When RESTASIS® Starts Working
RESTASIS® Ophthalmic Emulsion is not a quick fix and may take some time for maximum effect. It’s important to remind patients that they didn’t develop Chronic Dry Eye due to decreased tear production overnight, and it will take some time to repair the damage. Artificial tears and punctal plugs cannot increase tear production when tear production is presumed to be suppressed due to ocular inflammation associated with keratoconjunctivitis sicca – so it’s important for them to continue their RESTASIS® therapy.
Within a month, patients' eyes should start producing more of their own tears. One way they’ll know this is that they’ll start feeling less need to use artificial tears. Over the first 6 months of RESTASIS® Ophthalmic Emulsion treatment, use of artificial tears is likely to decrease.
About Continued Use of Artificial Tears
RESTASIS® goes right to work, but it takes time to increase tear production. So when they start RESTASIS® Ophthalmic Emulsion, many patients may want to continue to use artificial tears as needed. Within a month, many patients feel a noticeable improvement; they may first notice that they’re not using artificial tears as much. Your RESTASIS® patients can use artificial tears, such as OPTIVE™ Lubricant Eye Drops, in conjunction with RESTASIS® Ophthalmic Emulsion. For more information about OPTIVE™ Lubricant Eye Drops, go to www.optivesolutions.com.
About Dosing
Patients should use RESTASIS® twice a day, 12 hours apart, every day. It should be used every morning and every night.
About Side Effects
RESTASIS® Ophthalmic Emulsion should not be used by patients with active eye infections and has not been studied in patients with a history of herpes viral infections of the eye. The most common side effect is a temporary burning sensation. Other side effects include eye redness, discharge, watery eyes, eye pain, foreign body sensation, itching, stinging, and blurred vision.
For Continued Use of RESTASIS®
There is no cure for Chronic Dry Eye patients whose tear production is presumed to be suppressed due to ocular inflammation. Patients need to dose RESTASIS® Ophthalmic Emulsion on schedule, no matter how their eyes are feeling, to maintain the increase in tear production that it is achieving for them. The good news is that over time some RESTASIS® patients can reduce their use of artificial tears.
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RESTASIS® Ophthalmic Emulsion is indicated to increase tear production in patients whose tear production is presumed to be suppressed due to ocular inflammation associated with keratoconjunctivitis sicca. Increased tear production was not seen in patients currently taking topical anti-inflammatory drugs or using punctal plugs.
Important Safety Information:
RESTASIS® is contraindicated in patients with active ocular infections and has not been studied in patients with a history of herpes keratitis.
The most common adverse event was ocular burning (upon instillation) – 17%. Other events reported in 1% to 5% of patients included conjunctival hyperemia, discharge, epiphora, eye pain, foreign body sensation, pruritus, stinging, and visual disturbance (most often blurring).
Please see full prescribing information for RESTASIS® (cyclosporine ophthalmic emulsion) 0.05%.