Consensual pupillary responses to mydriatic and miotic drugs.

1. Three experiments were conducted to examine whether mydriatic or miotic drugs instilled into one eye have any effect on the diameter of the pupil of the untreated fellow eye, in healthy volunteers. 2. In Experiment 1, the effects of four subjects, using photography in an illuminated room to assess pupil diameter. The drug evoked a dose-dependent mydriasis in the index eye which was accompanied by a simultaneous dose-dependent miosis in the fellow eye. 3. In Experiment 2, the same method was used to assess pupil diameter as in Experiment 1. The effects of mydriatic (methoxamine and tyramine) and of miotic (pilocarpine) drugs instilled into the fellow eye, were studied on the sizes of pupillary responses to the same drugs instilled into the index eye. The presence of a mydriatic drug in the fellow eye resulted in a decrease in the size of the mydriatic responses in the index eye. 4. In Experiment 3, the effects of three concentrations of phenylephrine hydrochloride (0.15-0.60 M) and of three concentrations of pilocarpine hydrochloride (0.002-0.008 M), were studied in darkness using an infra-red binocular television pupillometer, in seven subjects. Phenylephrine evoked dose-dependent mydriasis and pilocarpine evoked dose-dependent miosis. The pupillary responses of the index eye were not accompanied by any changes in the diameter of the pupil of the fellow eye. 5. It is concluded that drug-induced mydriasis in the index eye is accompanied by a consensual miosis in the fellow eye.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)