Hello everyone - just coming off the back of a cancelled ablation this week so not feeling my best.
I decided to cheer myself up with an eyetest, the result being an increase prescription for myopia from -3.5 to -4.5 in 5 months!
I told the optician that I found the rapid deterioration very alaming but he bruhed off my concerns and just tried to get me to immediately buy a new pair glasses
I'm so worried that I've booked a private app to see an eye doctor tomorrow.
However I have now discovered that Flecainide can cause blurred vision and the deterioration does appear to coincide with my dosage being increased from 50 mg to 100 mg twice a day.
Has anyone else experienced any sort of problem with their vision that they might attribute to Flecainide?
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MisterMagoo
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My eyesight has got worse on 200mgs Flecainide over since 60 now 70yo but I doubt an optician would say that was the drug, probably just trot out age and computer use.
I would have thought that blurred vision as a drug side effect is different from myopia and would be transitory. I would be cross at the optician if I were "brushed off", though, and I, too, would query that change over 6 months.
I’m not sure. We switched to Specsavers from two private opticians when they retired and we’ve been impressed all along. They employ the same trained people as others and use the latest testing equipment. It might have been an off day!
Absolutely! It was prescribed for me after my first EP study when they found AV re-entry tachycardia but I had to stop it as it gave me tunnel vision which was most unpleasant to say the least as well as giving me arrythmias. Don't like it at all!
I was on 50mg twice a day for a month and the one evening I tried a PIP of an extra 100mg I developed the most awful double (treble!!) vision. I spoke to the GP the next day and he told me to stop taking it immediately.
Well I hate to say it as I know it'll scare those on the forum, but Flecainide did indeed cause my eyesight to deteriorate to the point where I needed cataract surgery in both eyes. My ophthalmologist was shocked that the cataracts developed so quickly, in both eyes, at my (youngish) age at the time. The eye disturbances while on the drug would cause my peripheral vision to be blurry from a half hour after taking the pill to an hour later -- then it would subside.
That's a good question. It was an assumption of mine because of the blurry vision after taking the pill each day, and suddenly the cataracts popped up during that same time frame -- and also after reading about others' eye experiences with the drug. I concluded it "probably" was the cause -- no way to know for sure, of course.
I’ve been taking Flecainide (150mg twice per day) for over 10 years and never noticed any side effects. Any worsening of eyesight is put down to ageing!
Yes I had blurred vision with Flectnide , they took me off last October because I was starting to get a thicking around my heart! I just started Multaq but that makes me dizzy! So now I have a appointment with my heart doctor and try a new drug!
As we all get older our eyesight gets worse. I have been on Flecainide for over 30 years and also have deteriorating eyesight. However I have no way of knowing if Flecainide is to blame. I think it is highly unlikely in my case.
Yes first it's the cataracts - have them removed, and then it's watching for the drusen to see have far away from AMG you are. !!My ophthalmologist recommends special eye vitamins, and I think they do help with preserving your eyesight.
I am not sure what has caused it but just before I was struck with a fib I had cataracts done and implants placed. I had 2020 vision last year before I moved. It was down to 2025 and I really believe it has dropped again, and I have no doubt a fib has caused it somehow. I went for over a year with tachycardia, I’m guessing lack of circulation certainly doesn’t help your eyes any more than anything else. It’s frustrating I was legally blind and to have 2020 was amazing. I can still see but I have days where I am a bit blurry. You are not alone.
I am sorry about the cancellation. In December my cardioversion failed 3 times socking me which meant they canceled everything else they had planned for me including new meds don’t give up there’s other options. I am your perfect example. There has not been a pacemaker for me and recently the FDA approved it. I have it now and oh my goodness I am alive again hang in there ask lots of questions and make sure you’ve got the right doctor. If he just wants to throw you in a box, we are all they have are ablations, medication, or cardioversions for you time to find a new doctor unless the one you have gives you good reasons for that. Many of them will just repeat their failures, which is not good for us either because of the scar tissue that builds and I don’t imagine shocking our heart over and over again is all that great for us either.
yes, while I was on a high dose of flecanide I developed strange vision when going abruptly from dark to light. My peripheral vision would be double/ triple…. A bit trippy as someone else put it. It was very odd. My optician said there was no problem with my eyes so it had to be to do with the nerve/ brain signals. I’m afraid that the benefits of flecanide for my AF were too great to make me want to stop taking it! Years later I had to come of it as it was causing other arrhythmias and my vision went back to normal although it took a little while. X
I take Flecainide as a PIP for AF and I’ve noticed a marked deterioration in my eyesight as the AF episodes have begun to happen more frequently. Of course, I can’t say whether the eyesight decline is down to the medication or to the AF itself. What I do know is that the one time I was put on daily Flecainide for a month, I had the most spectacular vision disturbances, with multicoloured flashing lights all around me - like a disco ball!
When I first went on flecainade I had blurred vision in the mornings, it looked like everything was in soft focus it would come on after my morning dose around 10 am and last till lunchtime 1ish. I’m retired and don’t drive so it did not affect me too badly but was a bit unnerving.
I mentioned it to my GP who contacted the EP who perscibed it and they changed me to propafenone , this was worse so I ended up changing back again, I definitely did not want to come off flecainade.
I mentioned it to an optician, an amazingly good one that I felt confident with! (at specsavers, unfortunately I’ve never seen him since which is one of the drawbacks of specsavers )
I had just had one of the extra scans they do and he seemed to not to be concerned about it, as long as it was not all the time. It was “just one of those things that happen with drugs”.
It must have lasted around 10 to 12 months I think, maybe a bit longer but just eventually stopped happening.
I am developing cataracts though, but seem to be managing ok with the glasses I have at the moment and they are now only seeing me every two years instead of yearly.
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