Mesopic pupillary reflex in patients treated with fluoxetine

currently the treatment of mental illness by antidepressants is very frequent. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are the most prescribed antidepressants worldwide and have been associated with alterations in accommodation or pupil. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of fluoxetine on the pupillary reflex and the accommodation in young population.

The study group included seven patients diagnosed with depression and treated with fluoxetine; 22 subjects were included as a control group. The pupillary reflexes and the accommodative state were evaluated using the Power Refractor II pupilometer. Five phases of 3 seconds each were measured. In phase 2 there was a glare with a white light.

For the pupil diameter, maximum and minimum values were obtained in the group of patients treated with fluoxetine than in the control in all the measurement phases. For the control group, a maximum pupillary contraction is observed in the glare phase, however, in the study group it is observed in the phase after glare. As for the accommodation, there are no significant differences between the two groups.

In patients treated with fluoxetine there are pupillary alterations like a bigger pupillary diameters and slower pupillary contraction. The lack of conclusive results in terms of accommodation does not mean that there are no changes related to it, whose detection requires future studies with different methodologies and with a larger sample size.