Tear film break-up time: comparison between patients using psychiatric drugs and healthy individuals

Ocular dryness is a well-recognized adverse side effect of many medications. The purpose of this study was to compare tear film stability between psychiatric patients that use lithium carbonate or carbamazepine and normal cases. Tear film break up time test was performed in three groups, 30 patients using lithium carbonate, 30 patients using carbamazepine and 30 normal cases. Values of the TBUTs were compared among groups by the independent t-test. Differences between both of patients and control groups were significant [p<0.0001]. The results show that these drugs contribute to decrease of tear film break up time