BACKGROUND The cumulative effect of taking multiple medicines with anticholinergic properties termed as anticholinergic burden can adversely impact cognition, physical function and increase the risk of mortality. Expert opinion derived risk scales are routinely used in research and clinical practice to quantify anticholinergic burden. These scales rank the anticholinergic activity of medicines ...

BACKGROUND in older people, medications with anticholinergic (antimuscarinic) effects are associated with adverse clinical outcomes, the risk increasing with increasing anticholinergic exposure. Many anticholinergics are recognised as potentially inappropriate and efforts to reduce prescription have been ongoing. We examined temporal trends of anticholinergic prescription and exposure in older ...

OBJECTIVES To identify medicines contributing to and describe predictors of anticholinergic burden among community-dwelling older Australian women. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Retrospective longitudinal analysis of data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health linked to Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme medicines data from 1 January 2008 to 30 December 2010; for 3694 women b...

BACKGROUND Older people with dementia may be particularly susceptible to cognitive impairment associated with anticholinergic and sedative medicines. This impairment may be misattributed to the disease process itself. OBJECTIVE This review examines clinical considerations associated with using anticholinergic and sedative medicines in people with dementia or incipient cognitive impairment. It...

AIMS To examine patient characteristics that predict adverse anticholinergic-type events in older people. METHODS This retrospective population-level study included 2,248 hospitalised patients. Individual data on medicines that are commonly associated with anticholinergic events (delirium, constipation and urinary retention) were identified. Patient characteristics examined were medicines wit...

BACKGROUND Cognitive deficits are prevalent in people with schizophrenia and associated with functional impairments. In addition to antipsychotics, pharmacotherapy in schizophrenia often includes other psychotropics, and some of these agents possess anticholinergic properties, which may impair cognition. The objective of this study was to explore the association between medication anticholinerg...

BACKGROUND Elderly adults should avoid medications with anticholinergic effects since they may increase the risk of adverse events, including falls, delirium, and cognitive impairment. However, data on anticholinergic burden are limited in subpopulations, such as individuals with Parkinson disease (PD). The objective of this study was to determine whether anticholinergic burden was associated w...

Several studies investigated the possible association between anticholinergic drugs and diverse clinical outcomes in older persons, but the results are inconsistent. The aim of this study was to investigate whether anticholinergic drug exposure is associated with delirium on admission, length of hospital stay, postdischarge institutionalization and in-hospital mortality in acutely ill hospitali...

BACKGROUND Despite the high intake of medications with anticholinergic properties by community-dwelling elderly persons, the effects on cognitive decline and dementia have rarely been evaluated. METHODS Participants were 4128 women and 2784 men 65 years or older from a population-based cohort recruited from 3 French cities. Cognitive performance, clinical diagnosis of dementia, and anticholin...

BACKGROUND Adverse effects of anticholinergic medications may contribute to events such as falls, delirium, and cognitive impairment in older patients. To further assess this risk, we developed the Anticholinergic Risk Scale (ARS), a ranked categorical list of commonly prescribed medications with anticholinergic potential. The objective of this study was to determine if the ARS score could be u...