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Eye and Vision Care

Cause of changing eye color

03/17/2003

Question:

Hello, I am a librarian trying to help a patron find the answer to why eyes sometimes change color as people age. So far, I have come across information that indicates babies and teens sometimes have eye color changes. Some information indicates that medication for glaucoma might cause color changes. Other information indicates that color changes are really just changes in refracted light, not actual color. Yet another site indicated migraines might be the cause of eye color changes. Would you say all these possibilities are accurate, what other possibilities are there? Thank you.

Answer:

You have already identified the most common causes of changes in the color of a patient`s iris:

1. Babies develop more pigment (melanin) as they age, so their eyes usually change from lighter to darker colors of blues or browns.

2. Some glaucoma medications (prostaglandins)disrupt the iris pigment cells, so they can cause some but not all iris quadrants to darken. This can be a big problem for blue and green-eyed patients; but brown-eyed patients rarely notice it.

3. Some patients are born with heterochromia (different colored irises); and others can develop it if they have certain neurological (Horner`s syndrome) or inflammatory (Posner-Schlossman syndrome) eye diseases.

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Response by:

The Ohio State University Robert D Newcomb, OD, MPH, FAAO
Professor of Clinical Optometry
College of Optometry
The Ohio State University
Robert D Newcomb, OD, MPH, FAAO