Italian researchers may have found a drug to treat amblyopia, or lazy eye. A study published in April in
Science
has demonstrated that Prozac, or fluoxetine, has one clear beneficial effect on the disorder, at least in rats: It can promote plasticity in the vision-processing part of the brain, a phenomenon formerly observed only in early development.
In children with amblyopia, one eye does not receive enough visual input, which causes the other eye to take over most of the visual processing in the brain. If the input problem is not corrected early in childhood, when the brain is still malleable, it can lead to permanently defective vision or blindness in one eye.
In a two-part study of adult rats treated with fluoxetine at levels comparable to those of people treated for depression, the scientists both induced amblyopia and cured it. First they sealed one eye, essentially instigating a case ...
