The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7500 p531
3 May 2008

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Anticholinergics and cognition

Older people who take anticholinergic drugs appear to suffer more rapid cognitive decline than people who do not use these medicines (0.045 units/year on a 21 unit scale; P=0.0044), a study presented at a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology suggests.

Researchers followed a group of 870 adults for an average of eight years. Of these, 679 people took at least one medicine with anticholinergic properties.