Oral antioxidant therapy for marginal dry eye

Objective: To assess the efficacy of an orally administered antioxidant die tary supplement for managing marginal dry eye. Design: A prospective, randomised, placebo controlled trial with cross-over . Setting: Eye Clinic, Department of Vision Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian Univ ersity. Subjects: Forty marginal dry eye sufferers composed of 30 females and 10 ma les (median age 53 y; range 38-69 y). Interventions: Baseline assessments were made of tear volume sufficiency (t hread test), tear quality (stability), ocular surface status (conjunctival impression cytology) and dry eye symptoms (questionnaire). Each subject was administered courses of active treatment, placebo and no treatment, in ran dom order for I month each and results compared to baseline. Results: Tear stability and ocular surface status were significantly improv ed following active treatment (P < 0.05). No changes from baseline were det ected following administration of placebo and no treatment (P >0.05). Absol ute increase in tear stability correlated with absolute change in goblet ce ll population density. Tear volume was not improved following any treatment period and dry eye symptom responses were subject to placebo effect. Conclusions: Oral antioxidants improved both tear stability and conjunctiva l health, although it is not yet understood whether increased ocular surfac e health mediates increased tear stability or vice versa. Sponsors: This study was supported by a PhD scholarship funded by the Depar tment of Vision Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland. Antioxid ant supplements and placebos were kindly donated by Vitabiotics.