Research suggests over-correcting myopia may exacerbate progression

A new study has found that the beneficial effects of overminus lens therapy for exotropia cease when children stop wearing the spectacles, while the approach also increased myopia progression in children.

The research, which was published in JAMA Ophthalmology, involved 386 children between the age of three and 10 who wore either overminus spectacles or non-overminus spectacles for a year.

Scientists found that distance exotropia control was significantly better among children assigned the overminus spectacles during the trial.

However, when the children gradually stopped wearing the overminus spectacles there was little to no difference between the extropia of the two groups.

The researchers also found that among the children assigned overminus lenses, there was roughly one third of a dioptre greater myopic shift than in the control group.

“This treatment was associated with increased myopic shift. The beneficial effect of overminus lens therapy on distance exotropia control was not maintained after treatment was tapered off for three months and children were examined three months later,” the authors explained.