Anticholinergic and Dementia

June 24, 2019

Anticholinergic Drug Exposure and the Risk of DementiaA Nested Case-Control Study

Carol A. C. Coupland, PhD¹; Trevor Hill, MSc¹; Tom Dening, MD²; et alRichard Morriss, MD²; Michael Moore, MSc³; Julia Hippisley-Cox, MD^1,4

Author Affiliations Article Information

JAMA Intern Med. 2019;179(8):1084-1093. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.0677

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Key Points

Question  Is the risk of dementia among persons 55 years or older associated with the use of different types of anticholinergic medication?

Findings  In this nested case-control study of 58 769 patients with a diagnosis of dementia and 225 574 matched controls, there were statistically significant associations of dementia risk with exposure to anticholinergic antidepressants, antiparkinson drugs, antipsychotic drugs, bladder antimuscarinics, and antiepileptic drugs after adjusting for confounding variables.