Common Drugs for Urinary Incontinence Could Make You Demented
Commonly prescribed anticholinergic meds (examples –Detrol LA, Ditropan-XL, Pro-Banthine) , for urinary incontinence and other common problems like motion sickness, could lead to a decline in their thinking skills.
Newly presented research , indicates that the effects of taking medication with anticholinergic properties led to cognitive deterioration as much as one and a half times as fast as patients not taking these drugs.
The study looked at 870 Catholic nuns and clergy members who averaged 75 years of age over an eight year period. These patient took annual tests of brain function and reported which medications they were taking to researchers.
period of eight years.
“Our findings point to anticholinergic drugs having an adverse impact on cognitive performance in otherwise normal, older people. Doctors may need to take this into account before prescribing these commonly used drugs.” said Dr. Jack Tsao, MD, DPhil, Associate Professor of Neurology at Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland at a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.
Additional studies will be required to find out how and why rapid memory loss occurs when anticholinergic drugs are given to older patients. The drugs which are most likely to cause these mental effects need to be determined as well.
from the American Academy of Neurology
