Widely Used Drugs Tied to Greater Dementia Risk for Over 65

[N'Zinga Shani]

Widely Used Drugs Tied to Greater Dementia Risk for Seniors -New Study Shows

By Anne Harding, Contributing Writer, Jan. 27, 2015

What commonly used sleep aids and other over-the-counter medications do you take? People over age 65 who frequently take over-the-counter sleep aids and certain other commonly used drugs may be increasing their risk of dementia, new findings show.

In the study, the researchers looked at drugs that have "anticholinergic effects," meaning they block a neurotransmittercalled acetylcholine. Many drugs fall into this class, including tricyclic antidepressants such as doxepin, antihistamines like Chlor-Trimeton (chlorpheniramine) and drugs like Detrol (oxybutinin) used to treat overactive bladder.

"We have known for some time that even single doses of these medications can cause impairment in cognition, slower reaction time, [and] reduced attention and ability to concentrate," said Shelly Gray, the study's first author and a pharmacy professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. Originally, "the thinking was that these cognitive effects were reversible when you stopped taking the medication."

Studies have shown as much as 37 percent of people over age 65 use anticholinergic medications, Gray and her team noted in their report, published today (Jan. 26) in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. Some previous studies had linked the drugs to permanent cognitive changes, including dementia, but all of these studies had "important limitations," the authors wrote. [6 Foods That Are Good for Your Brain]

For example, some studies failed to take into account that some anticholinergic drugs are used to treat depression and insomnia, which can be early warning signs of dementia. "If you don't account for that, it looks like the medication is causing the dementia, while it's really those symptoms that are causing that anticholinergic use," Gray said.

In the new study, Gray and her colleagues looked at data from the prospective Adult Changes in Thought study, which includes patients from Group Health, a health-care delivery system in Seattle. The researchers identified 3,434 people who were ages 65 and older and were free from dementia at the start of the study.

During follow-up, which lasted an average of about seven years, 797 study participants (23.2 percent) were diagnosed with dementia, and about 80 percent of these individuals had Alzheimer's disease. The researchers found that the higher a patient's cumulative dose of anticholinergic medication over the 10 years before entering the study, the greater his or her risk of dementia.

The researchers also analyzed the data after omitting the patients' prescription information for the first year, or two years, before they were diagnosed with dementia. This was done to address concerns that the drugs might be used to treat what were actually the early signs of dementia. The results remained the same after the omissions, however."

You may read the entire article by clicking the link below.

http://news.yahoo.com/widely-used-drugs-tied-greater-dementia-risk-seniors-162340600.html

 OneWorld Progressive Institute, Inc., is a small group of committed volunteers who produce community information and education television programs on health literacy, education and civic engagement.  We also find good information and post informative blogs about issues we believe shine light and are beneficial to many in our communities.  Learn more about us at our web site: www.oneworldpi.org/  and visit our web health section at: http://www.oneworldpi.org/health/index.html  Please share our information with others.  Watch our informative television programs on your public access channels: Frontier (formerly AT&T), Channel 99, drop down; Charter Communications Chan. 21, and Comcast (Optimum) Channels 10, 15, 18 & 26.

https://www.youtube.com/user/oneworldpi/videos - OneWorld’s YouTube – See us on: https://www.facebook.com/pages/OneWorld-Progressive-Institute-Inc/151551484879941