Clinicians should consider long-term cognitive effects of anticholinergics, study says

A group of drugs that are prescribed for depression, Parkinson’s disease, urinary incontinence and other conditions have been linked to an increased risk of dementia.

The UK study, published this week in the British Medical Journal, found a ‘robust associations’ between some classes of anticholinergic drugs and future dementia incidence. As many as 40,770 patients aged 65 to 99 with a diagnosis of dementia between April 2006 and July 2015, and 283 933 controls without dementia, were included in the study.

Examples of anticholinergics, which block the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, include Urispas (flavoxate) and Detrol (tolterodine), medications used to treat certain bladder/urinary tract symptoms and the Parkinson’s drugs Artane (trihexyphenidyl) and Cogentin (benzatropine).