Elderly Beware of Commonly Prescribed Group of Drugs

Elderly Beware of Commonly Prescribed Group of Drugs

Anti-cholinergics, a commonly prescribed group of drugs, may cause elderly people to “slow down” in their daily physical activities.

Two reports from Wake Forest University School of Medicine support findings that anti-cholinergic drugs – Used to treat acid reflux, Parkinson’s disease and urinary incontinence — may cause older people to lose their thinking skills more quickly than those who do not take the medicines.

Anti-cholinergic drugs work by stopping acetylcholine, a chemical that enhances communication between nerve cells in the brain, from binding to its receptors in nerve cells.
Older adults taking anti-cholinergics become more likely to walk more slowly and to need help in other daily activities. These results are true even in older adults who have normal memory and thinking abilities.

For older adults taking a moderately anticholinergic medication, or two or more mildly anticholinergic medications, their function is similar to that of someone three to four years older.

Common anticholinergic medicines include blood pressure medication, nifedipine; the stomach antacid, ranitidine, and the incontinence medication, tolterodine.

Cholinesterase inhibitors, a family of drugs used to treat dementia by increasing levels of acetylcholine include donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine and tacrine. About 10 percent of patients may be taking tolterodine and dozepezil together. The two drugs are pharmacological opposites, which led to the hypothesis that the simultaneous treatment of dementia and incontinence could lead to reduced effectiveness of one or both drug