Drugs Xagena
Anticholinergic drugs may cause older people to experience greater decline in their thinking skills than people not taking the drugs, according to research presented at the American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago.
The study looked at the effects of taking a medication with anticholinergic properties on the annual change in thinking abilities of 870 Catholic nuns and clergy members who were an average of 75 years old. All of the participants were part of the Rush Religious Orders Study, an ongoing, longitudinal, clinical study of older people without dementia.
All of the participants underwent annual cognitive tests and reported their medication use for an average follow-up period of eight years. During the study, 679 people took at least one medication with anticholinergic properties.
The study found those people who took anticholinergic drugs saw their rate of cognitive function decline 1.5 times as fast as those people who did not take the drugs.
According to Authors, the findings point to anticholinergic drugs having an adverse impact on cognitive performance in otherwise normal, older people. Physicians may need to take this into account before prescribing these commonly used drugs.
Source: American Academy of Neurology, 2008
XagenaMedicine_2008
