Common Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Linked to Lower Risk of Vision-Threatening Diabetic Retinopathy: Study
A new study revealed that patients with type 2 diabetes who received commonly used anti-inflammatory drugs, including prednisone, ibuprofen, or cetirizine, had a 37%–64% lower risk of developing vision-threatening complications of diabetic retinopathy compared with nonusers.
The reduction in risk was comparable to that associated with fenofibrate, a drug known to offer protection against diabetic eye complications. However, no similar association was observed with gabapentin, a pain medication without anti-inflammatory activity. The findings suggest that controlling inflammation may play a role in reducing the risk of vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy.
The study was published in the journal Ophthalmology by Henry S. and colleagues. To comprehensively test the protective effect of the commonly used anti-inflammatory medications, researchers undertook a retrospective cohort study by using the real-world EHRs from the TriNetX US Collaborative Network from January 1, 2005, to March 1, 2025. The study included adults with T2DM and a history of ophthalmic visits who had at least two prescriptions of any one of the following medications: cetirizine, ibuprofen, prednisone, fenofibrate (positive control), and gabapentin (negative control and active comparator).
Each cohort was 1:1 propensity score-matched on 44 covariates among non-users, resulting in large matched pair numbers that ranged between 18,762 and 86,846. Researchers tested the outcomes of incidence of DME and PDR for three years post-index using an eight-item ophthalmic NCO panel, E-value sensitivity analysis, and nine sensitivity analyses.
Key findings:
- Cetirizine usage was associated with a 38% reduction in incident DME (hazard ratio [HR], 0.62) and a 41% reduction in incident PDR (HR, 0.59).
- Ibuprofen demonstrated significant protective associations against DME (HR, 0.63) and PDR (HR, 0.48); prednisone showed the strongest reduction for DME (HR, 0.46) and PDR (HR, 0.36).
- Positive control fenofibrate showed comparable reductions (DME HR, 0.57; PDR HR, 0.59), whereas negative control gabapentin showed no protective association (DME HR, 0.95; PDR HR, 1.04). Point E-values for investigational drugs ranged from 2.57 to 4.97, and findings held across nine sensitivity models.
In summary, the use of the aforementioned drugs is significantly linked with the reduced incidence of macular edema and diabetic retinopathy in diabetic patients after 3 years. These results from the study clearly indicate that such studies should be carried out for the development of anti-inflammatory medications for the prevention of diabetes-associated eye problems.
Reference:
Bison, H. S., Zhu, A. S., Borissov, M., Jung, H.-J., Zhang, Y., & Thompson, J. T. (2026). Association of Common Anti-Inflammatory Medications with Reduced Risk of Vision-Threatening Diabetic Retinopathy in Type 2 Diabetes. Ophthalmology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2026.09.005
