The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7390 p259
4 March 2006

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Anticholinergic drugs impair cognition in older people

Older patients taking anticholinergic drugs are at risk of mild cognitive impairment, according to research published in the BMJ (2006;332:455).

Researchers performed cognitive assessment on 372 individuals over 60 years of age without a previous diagnosis of dementia, of whom 9.2 per cent had continuously used anticholinergic drugs in the year before assessment. Mild cognitive impairment was identified in 80 per cent of continuous anticholinergic drug users and in 35 per cent of those not using anticholinergic drugs (odds ratio 5.12; P=0.001). No association between anticholinergic use and the development of dementia was observed after an eight-year follow-up.