Eighty drugs were rated for their "anticholinergic" activity: they were given a score of one for a mild effect, two for moderate and three for severe.
Methods for assessing drug-related anticholinergic activity.
While the anticholinergic activity of medications has been linked to cognitive decline, few studies have linked anticholinergic burden with falls in older people.
Those who had taken any medication with anticholinergic activity were 11% more likely to be eventually diagnosed with dementia; for those drugs with the most anticholinergic effects, the risk of dementia was 30% greater.
The SSRIs, such as fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline, and paroxetine, have no sedating effect, anticholinergic activity, associated weight gain, or cardiac toxicity, but they can cause nervousness.
They have no sedating effect, anticholinergic activity, associated weight gain, or cardiac toxicity, but they can cause nervousness.
This study examined whether some of the age-associated decrements in basic cognitive resources (information-processing speed and working memory) result from anticholinergic medication use (as measured by serum anticholinergic activity [SAA]) and whether such decrements are lessened by caffeine.
Serum anticholinergic activity (SAA) was proposed as a disease marker as it may reflect delirium's important pathogenetic mechanism, cholinergic deficiency.
"Many of these medicines will have some anticholinergic activity and, in the light of today's findings, we have to consider whether the risks of dementia outweigh the benefits from taking a cocktail of prescribed drugs.
Even so, why do physicians prescribe any medications with anticholinergic activity to elderly people, who may be using them regularly for many years?
