Dorzolamide and Timolol Ophthalmic side effects: what 773 FDA adverse event reports show
Drug class
Carbonic anhydrase inhibitor
Label matched
Dorzolamide (Dorzolamide Hydrochloride)
Who reports
773 reports · 19% serious · 11 with death outcome · 57% female
Used for
Dorzolamide hydrochloride ophthalmic solution is indicated in the treatment of elevated intraocular pressure in patients with ocular hypertension or open-angle glaucoma. Dorzolamide hydrochloride ophthalmic solution is a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor indicated for the treatment of elevated intraocular pressure in patients with ocular hypertension or open-angle glaucoma. (1)
What it is
Dorzolamide hydrochloride ophthalmic solution, is a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor formulated for topical ophthalmic use. Dorzolamide hydrochloride is described chemically as: (4 S-trans )-4-(ethylamino)-5,6-dihydro-6methyl-4 H -thieno[2,3- b ]thiopyran-2-sulfonamide 7,7-dioxide monohydrochloride.
Boxed warning
None in the current label
Causality screen of the 7 strongest signals
What the badges mean
- Labeled (related wording) The label describes this effect under different wording (e.g. 'neutropenia' for 'neutrophil count decreased'). Treated as known.
- Likely indication confounding The term appears in the label's indications: reports probably describe the disease being treated (or its progression), not a drug effect. Classic confounding by indication.
- Reporting / coding artifact An administrative, monitoring or exposure term (product issue, off-label use, 'test normal', overdose...). Not a biological reaction; a high PRR here reflects how reports are coded.
- Not in label — unassessed Not found in the label text, not an artifact pattern. This is a genuine candidate for a formal causality assessment (Bradford Hill / WHO-UMC); it has NOT had one here.
Strongest disproportionality signals
Flagged terms (PRR ≥ 2, χ² ≥ 4, n ≥ 10), ranked by PRR; infinite PRRs (no comparator reports) excluded. The EBGM column is a second, shrinkage-based estimate (MGPS) with its 5th percentile EB05 and the BCPNN IC025; a pair flagged by PRR alone is marked PRR-only and should be read as fragile. The strata column recomputes the PRR on serious reports only and flags pairs whose reports are unusually skewed by sex or come mostly from consumers rather than clinicians. 1 further terms are in the interactive explorer. Reaction links open the term's cross-drug page.
| Reaction | Reports | PRR 95% CI · ROR · χ²/p | EBGM EB05 · IC025 | Label screen | Serious-only & strata | Trial cross-check |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Treatment failure | 416 | 138.2 129.4–147.6ROR 298.0 · χ² 56,449 / p <1e-300 | 136.6 EB05 126.0 · IC025 +6.7 3/3 methods agree | Reporting / coding artifact | serious PRR 9.5 · 81% consumer | no trial data cached |
| Product packaging quantity issue | 17 | 42.3 26.4–67.7ROR 43.2 · χ² 644 / p 2e-142 | 40.5 EB05 26.8 · IC025 +3.5 3/3 methods agree | Reporting / coding artifact | serious n=2 | no trial data cached |
| Intraocular pressure increased (raised eye pressure) | 15 | 31.7 19.2–52.4ROR 32.3 · χ² 416 / p 1e-92 | 30.6 EB05 19.7 · IC025 +3.1 3/3 methods agree | Likely indication confounding term in indications | serious PRR 37.4 | no trial data cached |
| Eye irritation | 35 | 17.0 12.3–23.6ROR 17.8 · χ² 514 / p 5e-114 | 16.8 EB05 12.6 · IC025 +3.2 3/3 methods agree | Labeled (related wording) related wording | serious PRR 7.2 · 94% consumer | no trial data cached |
| Eye discharge | 6 | 15.9 7.2–35.4ROR 16.1 · χ² 70 / p 3e-17 | 12.4 EB05 4.7 · IC025 +1.5 3/3 methods agree | Not in label — unassessed | serious n=2 | no trial data cached |
| Eye pain | 29 | 14.3 10.0–20.4ROR 14.8 · χ² 345 / p 3e-77 | 13.9 EB05 9.9 · IC025 +2.9 3/3 methods agree | Labeled (related wording) related wording | serious PRR 10.2 · 93% consumer | no trial data cached |
| Hand deformity | 5 | 10.4 4.3–24.8ROR 10.4 · χ² 33 / p 4e-9 | 6.6 EB05 2.7 · IC025 +0.9 3/3 methods agree | Not in label — unassessed | serious PRR 33.7 | no trial data cached |
Trial evidence (ClinicalTrials.gov)
Most frequently reported reactions
By raw co-report count, regardless of disproportionality. Common terms here are often the illness itself or generic outcomes.
| Reaction | Reports | PRR 95% CI · ROR · χ²/p | EBGM EB05 · IC025 | Label screen | Serious-only & strata | Trial cross-check |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Treatment failure | 416 | 138.2 129.4–147.6ROR 298.0 · χ² 56,449 / p <1e-300 | 136.6 EB05 126.0 · IC025 +6.7 3/3 methods agree | Reporting / coding artifact | serious PRR 9.5 · 81% consumer | no trial data cached |
| Eye irritation | 35 | 17.0 12.3–23.6ROR 17.8 · χ² 514 / p 5e-114 | 16.8 EB05 12.6 · IC025 +3.2 3/3 methods agree | Labeled (related wording) related wording | serious PRR 7.2 · 94% consumer | no trial data cached |
| Eye pain | 29 | 14.3 10.0–20.4ROR 14.8 · χ² 345 / p 3e-77 | 13.9 EB05 9.9 · IC025 +2.9 3/3 methods agree | Labeled (related wording) related wording | serious PRR 10.2 · 93% consumer | no trial data cached |
| Product packaging quantity issue | 17 | 42.3 26.4–67.7ROR 43.2 · χ² 644 / p 2e-142 | 40.5 EB05 26.8 · IC025 +3.5 3/3 methods agree | Reporting / coding artifact | serious n=2 | no trial data cached |
| Intraocular pressure increased (raised eye pressure) | 15 | 31.7 19.2–52.4ROR 32.3 · χ² 416 / p 1e-92 | 30.6 EB05 19.7 · IC025 +3.1 3/3 methods agree | Likely indication confounding term in indications | serious PRR 37.4 | no trial data cached |
| Eye discharge | 6 | 15.9 7.2–35.4ROR 16.1 · χ² 70 / p 3e-17 | 12.4 EB05 4.7 · IC025 +1.5 3/3 methods agree | Not in label — unassessed | serious n=2 | no trial data cached |
| Hand deformity | 5 | 10.4 4.3–24.8ROR 10.4 · χ² 33 / p 4e-9 | 6.6 EB05 2.7 · IC025 +0.9 3/3 methods agree | Not in label — unassessed | serious PRR 33.7 | no trial data cached |
| Deformity | 3 | 8.7 2.8–26.9ROR 8.7 · χ² 13 / p 1e-4 | 4.6 EB05 1.7 · IC025 -0.0 PRR-only: not supported by EBGM or IC | Not in label — unassessed | serious PRR 29.7 | no trial data cached |
Unlabeled candidate signals
Every screened signal with n ≥ 20 was either labeled, an indication term, or an artifact pattern — no unlabeled candidate stood out in the top signals.
Want to assess one of these properly? The runbook describes the Bradford Hill / trial-evidence workflow used on the assessment page, and handoff_top1000_signals.csv lists the strongest unassessed pairs across all drugs.
Common questions
What are the most reported side effects of Dorzolamide and Timolol Ophthalmic?
In FDA FAERS, the most frequently co-reported reaction terms for Dorzolamide and Timolol Ophthalmic are eye irritation, eye pain, intraocular pressure increased, eye discharge, hand deformity, deformity. These are report counts, not rates: FAERS has no denominator, reporting is voluntary and uneven, and a term can be reported because of the illness being treated rather than the drug.
Does Dorzolamide and Timolol Ophthalmic have an FDA boxed warning?
No. The FDA label retrieved for Dorzolamide and Timolol Ophthalmic has no boxed warning; see the label's Warnings and Precautions for the recognised risks.
Do FAERS signals prove that Dorzolamide and Timolol Ophthalmic causes these side effects?
No. A disproportionality signal (PRR, ROR) means a reaction is reported more often with this drug than with others in the database. That can reflect a real effect, but also the disease being treated, stimulated reporting after news or litigation, co-medications, or how reports are coded. Causality needs temporality, dose-response, biological plausibility, consistency across data sources and, ideally, trial or cohort evidence. This page screens each term against the FDA label and ClinicalTrials.gov results; it does not establish causation.
Sources & methods
- FDA label via openFDA (set ID 462a61b2-1ec6-4d18-bc6b-fc03e027caa0, effective 20241004; matched on
openfda.generic_name.exact:"DORZOLAMIDE") - Bayesian shrinkage measures computed offline over all 1,317,300 cached pairs: BCPNN information component (IC, with Norén closed-form IC025) and MGPS empirical-Bayes geometric mean (EBGM, EB05) with a two-component gamma prior fitted by maximum marginal likelihood (α₁=0.57, β₁=0.02, α₂=1.42, β₂=0.70, w=0.17); unstratified
- FAERS pair statistics from the OpenPV build of 2026-09-14 (openFDA
count=aggregation, fieldpatient.drug.openfda.generic_name.exact, 8 reaction terms, min 3 co-reports); PRR/ROR with 95% CI, chi-square with Yates correction - Serious-only and stratified counts (serious:1, patient.patientsex, primarysource.qualification) from openFDA count queries; serious-only PRR uses the drug serious report total and the term global serious total (N_serious=11,882,979); strata shown only when n ≥ 20
- Seriousness and sex counts from openFDA
count=serious,patient.patientsex,seriousnessdeath
Page generated 2026-10-08. Label and PubChem text are retrieved automatically and may lag the current label; always check the current prescribing information. OpenPV is a beta research tool of the Open Source Medicine Foundation.