Steroid Creams Can Cause Cataracts

I will begin with a question for those of you who have used steroid cream at any point in your life.

When your doctor prescribed the cream, did he/she warn you of the risk of cataracts?

In my case, the answer is a definite NO. I have been prescribed steroid creams in varying strengths ever since childhood and my doctors dutifully filled our repeat after repeat prescription.

No warnings about eye problems, ever. I would have remembered.

It was with sadness and shock that I received a text message earlier this week from a very dear skin friend who was beside herself with worry. Her young teenage daughter, who has used steroid creams most of her life and is now going through TSW, has been diagnosed with a cataract in her eye and now needs to have eye surgery.

This is a young teenage girl for goodness sake! I always though cataracts were an "old persons" thing.

I did some further research and was amazed at what I found. Page upon page of evidence linking topical steroid use with cataracts. Not just topical steroids either; cataracts can be caused by oral or nasal steroids too, like that lovely inhaler I use for my asthma...

Check out these links for more information:

Steroid-Induced cataract study
Case report of two children. Cataract caused by hydrocortisone on face.
Steroids cause cataracts AND glaucoma
Iatrogenic Cataracts

In an interesting quote from the last article on the list:

"I would say 95 percent of the cases of iatrogenic cataracts that I see are caused by the overuse of topical steroids. Intraoperative and systemic steroids are also a problem,” Dr. Olson said."

Goodness me. 95% is a high number.

I would urge everyone who has every used steroid creams on the face to go and get their eyes checked out. You are at risk of glaucoma and cataracts.

I have been lucky in that my eyes are ok, although I have suffered a lot of discharge since going through TSW, which I believe is related to the dilated blood vessels in my eyes. I also suffered from blurred vision when I first quit steroids.

Dr Fukaya, and expert on steroid addiction, says:

“You don’t need to visit to any dermatologist including me, but you should visit to an ophthalmologist periodically.” That was my habitual saying to patients with atopic dermatitis.

I hope my skin friend is OK and makes a full recovery from her surgery, but this should never happen. For a child to suffer this way because of a side-effect of a MEDICINE is awful.

First do no harm.....