Antidepressant Medication Use for Treatment of Chronic Ocular Pain

Chronic ocular pain (COP) is a leading cause of eye care visits in the US and has a substantial impact on quality of life and visual functioning. Although many conditions underlie COP, such as dry eye disease or post-herpetic neuralgia, some people experience pain without significant ocular signs on examination or known risk factors (eg, traumatic injury). Antidepressant medications that act primarily on the central nervous system, such as tricyclic antidepressants and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, are often used to treat patients with COP, but a recent Cochrane review and network meta-analysis investigating 25 different antidepressants concluded that only two serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, have sufficient data to support their use in chronic pain. For all other medications, the evidence was of low certainty. We contend that while these medications are not a cure-all for chronic pain or COP, it is premature to conclude that these medications have no role in their treatment. We provide a rationale for continued use of antidepressant medications as part of a multimodal targeted treatment for patients with COP.