What Does It Feel Like to Take Restasis for Dry Eye?
Key takeaways:
Dry eye syndrome occurs when the tear glands don’t make enough tears.
Symptoms include burning, redness, watery eyes, and blurred vision.
Restasis (cyclosporine) is a prescription eye drop solution that helps stimulate tear production. It can be used long term.
Access savings on related medications
Dry eye is a common condition that happens when the eyes aren’t producing enough tears or when tears evaporate too quickly.
Symptoms include burning, a dry or scratchy feeling, blurry vision, redness, and light sensitivity.
Restasis — also known by its generic name, cyclosporine — is prescription eye drop that works by stimulating tear production. It tends to have few side effects, and it’s safe for long-term use.
Here’s how four people describe what it feels like to take Restasis.
Restasis helped her eyes make more tears
Shortly after starting treatment for lupus at age 24, Kymberli Hill’s eyesight began deteriorating. Despite having Sjögren’s disease — an autoimmune condition that causes dry eyes, dry mouth, and other symptoms — since age 14, Kymberli wasn’t aware it would affect her vision. She remembers experiencing blurred vision and a white film over her eyes. She’d also experienced photophobia (sensitivity to light) since she was 20.
Kymberli is a lab technician for a cosmetic manufacturer. Her work requires frequent computer screen time, so her symptoms can affect her job.
An ophthalmologist diagnosed Kymberli with dry eye syndrome and prescribed a steroid, followed by Restasis.
After the first application, Kymberli says, Restasis made her eyes burn. She told her doctor it wasn’t working. But after trying a range of eye drops, she returned to Restasis.
Now, Kymberli, who is 28 and lives in Norcross, Georgia, uses Restastis twice a day. After 4 weeks, she says, it helped ease her symptoms by helping her eyes produce more tears.
Taking the prescription drops helps, she says, but her symptoms have not disappeared. Environmental stressors like pollen irritate her eyes. She uses eye wipes and dry eye ointments to help reduce her symptoms. She also wears sunglasses to help with the light sensitivity.
Kymberli says she wishes there was a cure for dry eye. She can only find things to make her feel more comfortable.
“It takes a mental toll on you,” she says.
Restasis can make your eyes burn
Like Kymberli, 36-year-old Heather Foisy also has Sjögren’s. At age 20, Heather began experiencing gastrointestinal issues and had difficulty eating. Debilitating constipation had her in and out of the hospital.
“I started noticing that my body was kind of in disarray,” says Heather, who’s 36 and lives in Alberta, Canada. “Sjögren’s is an autoimmune disease where your immune system attacks the moisture-producing glands inside of your body. And so, it is typically presented with severe dry eyes, dry mouth, dry nose, and dry vaginal cavity.”
She, too, developed dry eye. “Because I’ve had dry eyes and dry mouth my entire life, I just thought that was normal,” she says.
Her provider prescribed Restasis twice daily.
For the first 3 weeks, Heather says, using the eye drops left her with a burning, tingling sensation in her eyelids for an hour at a time. The discomfort became too much, she says, so she stopped taking Restasis.
While Restasis didn’t work for her, as a patient advocate, Heather says she often suggests people with dry eye try it for themselves.
“Restasis has been incredibly successful for a lot of patients, and it is something that I do recommend patients look into if [over-the-counter] eye drops are not working for them.”
Some people get used to the burning sensation
When Sarah Lucero, of San Antonio, Texas, was in her early 30s, she had LASIK surgery to correct her vision. Eventually, the effects of her surgery wore off, and Sarah needed to wear contacts again.
But she could only stand to wear contacts for an hour at a time because her eyes would become dry and irritated.
That made her job as a news anchor difficult. Since viewers knew her without glasses, she didn’t want to start wearing them. She wanted to continue to wear contacts.
Sarah’s doctor prescribed Restasis. While it made her eyes burn at first, she got used to it. After a few days, she says, it helped ease her symptoms. She was finally able to wear contact lenses again.
“There’s this relief that you’re not itchy, you’re not dry, you’re not wanting to scratch your eyes or pull something out of your eye,” she says. “So, it's a very comforting feeling to have that and not have to worry about [it].”
She gave it a try when she could afford the prescription
Michelle Spieler also found that dry eyes interfered with her career. When she was 26 years old, she worked as a makeup artist for MAC Cosmetics in Los Angeles. She found that her right eye would tear constantly. Halfway through the day, all of the makeup on her right eye would disappear.
She found the symptoms to be annoying, because for the first half of the day, her eye was non-stop tearing. Continuously wiping this area meant that the skin around her eye became raw. When she stopped tearing, no makeup would stick to her red raw skin.
“It was just really embarrassing to be a professional makeup artist,” she says. “We’re very much judged on how we look as we approach the client in our chair. And I couldn’t keep makeup on one eye. It was just ridiculous.”
Michelle, who’s now 55 and lives in North Carolina, eventually saw a doctor who suggested Restasis. But the prescription would have cost her $100 a month. At the time, she couldn’t afford it. Instead, she tried tear duct plugs but didn’t want to continue with them.
When she switched insurance, she found she could get Restasis for only about $20 a month. That sold her on it.
Once she began taking Restasis drops, she was able to drive in her car with the AC on or the window open without any problems. “That was my first indication, ‘Holy crap this works,’” she says. “That’s really why I waited so long. I didn’t know you could do it cost-effectively.”
When she encounters other women dealing with dry eye syndrome, Michelle shares her experience.
“As a makeup artist who likes to educate women on mature makeup techniques, this was another tool in my toolbox I could use to help women look and feel better each day,” Michelle says. “Now they can wear makeup due to the fact that their eyes aren’t tearing.”
What does the pharmacist say?
Christina Aungst, PharmD
Pharmacy Editor
Restasis (cyclosporine) is a prescription-only eye drop that’s FDA-approved for dry eye syndrome in adults and teens ages 16 and older. If you’ve tried over-the-counter (OTC) artificial tears without success, Restasis may be the next step.
Restasis works differently from OTC eye drops. Artificial tears contain solutions or moisturizers that feel similar to our natural tears. Restasis helps stimulate your eyes to make more tears. It does this by relieving swelling around the eye that blocks the tear ducts. This can help you cut down on how often you’re applying OTC artificial tears.
Restasis doesn’t provide immediate relief, though. Some people start to notice symptom improvement within a month of starting the eye drop. But it can take up to 6 months to feel the medication’s full effects.
The typical dosage of Restasis is one drop in each eye twice daily, about 12 hours apart. You can continue to use OTC artificial tears with Restasis if needed. Just make sure to wait at least 15 minutes between each type of eye drop you’re using. If you wear contact lenses, take them out before using Restasis. And wait at least 15 minutes after a dose before putting your contacts back in.
Restasis has very few side effects. Burning or redness in or around the eye are most commonly reported. But keep in mind these sensations are usually temporary and become less noticeable (or even go away) after your body adjusts to Restasis.
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