Will I eventually go blind being on Plaquenil?

Hi Angie,

I've been on plaquenil for about a year, so not quite as long as you. When you began plaquenil, you should have gone through a round of tests with an opthalmalogist.  When I went for mine, he told me that it was very unlikely plaquenil would cause any problems with my eye unless I were taking a much higher dosage than any doctor would prescribe.

As long as you are not noticing any difference in your vision, and going to see your opthalmalogist once or twice a year for check ups, you ought to be fine.

If you notice any difference in your vision, though, you should definitely bring that up with your rheumatologist and/or opthalmalogist right away.

Hope this helps,

Sara

This is not a drug that I have taken, but I have done a fair amount of research on this and a bunch of others.  From what I've read your odds on going blind are virtually zero PROVIDED you are diligent about getting your eyes tested as required.  Blindness on this med isn't even close to being a given.  Extremely rare and if it happens is usually because folks weren't following directions to test their eyes.  This really shouldn't be an issue keeping you up at night.

Yeah, you chances are near zero, I have turned out to be a rare case. I take it for Lupus. I am on my third visit/screening from my eye doctor and it is starting to show up.

Plaquenil is a very toxic medication but one that serves great purpose for those of us that need it. Since I have been on it my memory has improved greatly, my joints do a bit better (still painful but not a daily thing like it was) and so forth.

My eye doctor has seen HUNDREDS upon HUNDREDs of people on this medication and in that time I am only the 6th person to have an issue with it. Just keep up with your appointments. Most of the eye issues are temporary initially with that cloudy feeling/vision. But that clears up.

What has occured with me is my focal point has actually been artifically inflammed and moved back so my path of vision is not true. If tht makes sense. It is only occuring in my right eye, which that eye has always been worse. There is more of a chance it is inflammed from the disease itself than it is from medication for most of us and even that is only about 10% in Lupus patients. The chance of it from the drug is some crazy number like 1 in 100,000 - which happens to be me.

Good luck, I am not blind but it may progress even off the drug, so be thankful, don't worry given the disease there are far worse thing s than the eye damage that can happen from the disease. SO take your medication and see your doctors regularly.