VIDEO: Addressing unmet needs in dry eye

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There are unmet needs in the dry eye world out there. For doctors of optometry whose clinics focus on other areas of care. Maybe you have a practice specializing in pediatric or vision therapy or low vision. You don't always have the tools, the equipment to address the dry eye issues. If the practice model doesn't allow for adequate time to address those, or you have more severe cases of dry eye coming in that you're not prepared for, a referral to an OD specializing in dry eye is always an excellent idea. Secondarily, a recent systemic review of meta-analysis that evaluated 32 studies on depression and anxiety showed that depression, anxiety, and ocular surface disease are all linked. One study found that 40% of dry eye patients had depression, which was 1.8 times more prevalent than in controls. 39% had anxiety, which was 2.3 times higher than controls. There's definitely an unmet need for optometry to refer to mental health professionals to help address these issues. You know, as I said earlier dry eye is a multifactorial disease. And if we're just addressing the dry eye, that's one thing. But taking care of the patient and all of the patient's healthcare needs is much more important. America's eye doctors are well trained, very educated and ready to take on the challenges of patient care across the country. If patients seek out their eye doctor for their annual eye exam, that would be a huge start to making sure that their eye health their dry eye issues are being addressed.