The instructions for use that accompany certain sleeping pills or antihistamine medicines warn of the risks of drowsiness or reduced attention during their use. But, according to a study which has just been published in the medical journal Jama internal medicine, these notices should be more explicit and also warn of the higher risks of develop a form of dementia.
Beware of drugs with anticholinergic effect
Dr Shelly Gray and her colleagues at the University of Washington (USA) followed the health of 3434 people aged 65 and over who showed no signs of dementia at the start of the study. They looked at their medical records and different drug prescriptions to determine how many of them had taken drugs with an anticholinergic effect (that is, which acts on certain neurotransmitters), at what dose and how often. . They then compared these prescriptions with the appearance, in the ten years that followed, of signs of dementia (such as Alzheimer’s disease, for example) in 797 of the study participants.
Anticholinergic type medications more commonly used by the latter were antidepressants, antihistamines for allergies such as hay fever, sleeping pills or drugs to treat urinary incontinence.
According to Dr. Gray’s team, people who take at least 10 mg/day of doxepin (an antidepressant), 4 mg/day of diphenhydramine (a sleeping pill), or 5 mg/day of oxybutynin (for urinary incontinence ) for more than 3 years would be at greater risk of developing dementia in the following years.
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