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In the other half of the unconscious nervous system from the alpha and beta sympathetic group, we have the parasympathetic system. The drugs that affect this system work by stimulating little muscles within the eye to contract. One particularly visible result is that they make the pupil small. The one remaining drug in this class still found in drug stores is pilocarpine, which improves outflow of aqueous. It has so many downsides that it is used infrequently, and usually only in special situations. It causes blurred vision, dim vision, a sinus-headache-like pain, redness of the eye, and occasionally can cause a detachment of the retina inside the eye. The most common time that eye surgeons still use this class of drug is as a help during the production of a laser iris hole for angle closure (iridotomy).
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