Carbachol: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Carbachol is a cholinergic receptor agonist sold in the U.S. under one brand, for glaucoma. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Drug class
- Cholinergic Receptor Agonist
- Treats
- Glaucoma
- Available as
- Solution
- Sold as
- Miostat
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
How carbachol is dosed
From the FDA label for Miostat (application NDA016968). Other carbachol products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
Aseptically remove the sterile vial from the blister package by peeling the backing paper and dropping the vial onto a sterile tray. Withdraw the contents into a dry sterile syringe, and replace the needle with an atraumatic cannula prior to intraocular instillation. No more than one-half milliliter should be gently instilled into the anterior chamber for the production of satisfactory miosis. It may be instilled before or after securing sutures. Miosis is usually maximal within two to five minutes after application.
Carbachol side effects
Ocular: Corneal clouding, persistent bullous keratopathy, retinal detachment and postoperative iritis following cataract extraction have been reported. Systemic: Side effects such as flushing, sweating, epigastric distress, abdominal cramps, tightness in urinary bladder, and headache have been reported with topical or systemic application of carbachol. The following additional reactions have been identified during post-approval use of MIOSTAT (carbachol intraocular solution, USP) 0.01% in clinical practice. Because they are reported voluntarily from a population of unknown size, estimates of frequency cannot be made. The reactions, which have been chosen for inclusion due to either their seriousness, frequency of reporting, possible causal connection to MIOSTAT, or a combination of these factors, include: corneal edema, drug effect prolonged (miosis), eye inflammation, eye pain, intraocular pressure increased, ocular hyperemia, vision blurred, visual impairment, and vomiting.
Who shouldn’t take carbachol
Should not be used in those persons showing hypersensitivity to any of the components of this preparation.
Every carbachol product we track (1)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
Only one: Miostat.
Combination products containing carbachol
A combination is a different drug — different dosing, different warnings. It is listed here so you can find it, not so you can substitute it.
Carbachol and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for carbachol: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadNo information is available on the use of carbachol ophthalmic drops during breastfeeding. Because of its short half-life, it is not likely to reach the bloodstream of the infant or cause any adverse effects in breastfed infants.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised April 19, 2021. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about carbachol
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 100 reports naming carbachol, and the FDA flagged 86% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- abdominal discomfort20 reports
- amyloid arthropathy18 reports
- arthropathy18 reports
- lower respiratory tract infection18 reports
- obesity18 reports
- pulmonary pain18 reports
- rash18 reports
- blood pressure decreased15 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean carbachol caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 25, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
What is carbachol?
Miostat (Carbachol) is a cholinergic receptor agonist used to treat Glaucoma.
What kind of drug is carbachol?
The FDA classifies carbachol as a cholinergic receptor agonist. Cholinergic receptor agonists mimic acetylcholine and switch on its receptors, triggering the body's "rest and digest" responses. This boosts effects like saliva and tear flow, bladder and bowel emptying, and pupil constriction. If you are checking whether it is safe to combine with something else, the class is what matters — two drugs from the same class usually should not be stacked.
Can you take carbachol with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run carbachol against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What forms does carbachol come in?
Across the brands we track, carbachol is currently marketed as solution, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic carbachol?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled carbachol product. That does not always mean none exists — it means none appears under a generic name in the FDA data we track. Ask your pharmacist.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Carbachol: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/carbachol
- MLA
- “Carbachol: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/carbachol.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for carbachol on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.