The impact of treatment of eye disease on optometric practice in Missouri.

This study attempts to determine the impact of the legal authorization to treat eye diseases on the practice of optometry in Missouri. Seventy-two percent of the therapeutic pharmaceutical agent (TPA) certified optometrists practicing in the state responded to a questionnaire in 1991. A majority of those responding prescribed every category of TPA except oral anti-histaminic agents. More than two-thirds have received registration numbers to prescribe controlled substances. The median number of therapeutic prescriptions written per year was 144. Disturbingly, most of the practitioners have never been visited in their offices by a drug company representative. Some have hospital privileges and only about one-fourth of the respondents have nursing home privileges.