Wall Street Journal had published an article about myopia control treatments and our Associate Professor, Dr Jason CS YAM, was invited to share his findings on the Low-concentration Atropine for Myopia Progression study.

Atropine is FDA-approved as a treatment for conditions including lazy eye, but not yet for myopia. A study of more than 400 4- to 12-year-olds in Hong Kong, published in the journal 《Ophthalmology》, has burnished the case for low-concentration atropine, finding that it helped control myopia with no major side effects, though the researchers note that how it works isn’t fully understood.

Three hundred eighty-three (87%) of the 438 children in the one-year LAMP study continued in the second-year extension. Participants had myopia of at least -1.0 diopter (D) and had been randomized to receive atropine 0.05%, 0.025%, 0.01%, or placebo once daily in both eyes. For the extension trial, children in the placebo group in the first year were switched to 0.05% atropine from the beginning of the second year follow up; those in the 0.05%, 0.025%, and 0.01% groups continued on the same regimen.

The primary outcomes were between-group differences in spherical equivalent (SE) and axial length (AL). As reported in Ophthalmology, over the two-year period, the mean SE progression was 0.55, 0.85, and 1.12 in the 0.05%, 0.025%, and 0.01% atropine groups, respectively; corresponding mean AL changes were 0.39 mm, 0.50 mm, and 0.59 mm.

The efficacy of 0.05% and 0.025% concentrations remained similar to the first year, but the 0.01% group showed mild improvement.

“Once the eye has elongated, surgery can’t reverse it back to normal. The time to intervene is in childhood”, says Dr Yam, adding that if myopia isn’t controlled, “our society will suffer from a much-increased burden of eye disease.”

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Dr Jason YAM interviewed by Reuters Health for the effects of Atropine 0.05%

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