Prescribing Practices of Anticholinergic Medications and Their Association With Cognition in an Extended Care Setting

The current study examined prescribing patterns of anticholinergic (AC) medications and their association with cognitive function in 450 nondemented and nondelirious older adults hospitalized in a postacute extended care center. Participants completed a brief neuropsychological battery that included...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of applied gerontology Vol. 31; no. 2; pp. 239 - 259
Main Authors Drag, Lauren L., Wright, Sara L., Bieliauskas, Linas A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.04.2012
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Burden
Clinical standards
Cognition
Cognitive ability
Dopamine
Elderly
Elderly people
Executives
Gerontology
Hospitalized
Memory
Negative cognition
Neurology
Older people
Prescribing
neuropsychology
cognition
anticholinergic
burden
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Summary:The current study examined prescribing patterns of anticholinergic (AC) medications and their association with cognitive function in 450 nondemented and nondelirious older adults hospitalized in a postacute extended care center. Participants completed a brief neuropsychological battery that included measures of general mental status, memory, judgment, and executive functioning as part of standard clinical care. An AC burden score was calculated for each participant based on medications taken the day of the testing using the Anticholinergic Drug Scale. Although use of AC medications was common, the majority of participants were taking medications with only minimal AC properties. AC burden and total number of AC medications were negatively correlated with age. AC burden was not associated with lower performance on any of the cognitive measures. In sum, current prescribing practices of AC medications are not associated with negative cognitive effects in a sample of older adults hospitalized in an extended care center.
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ISSN:0733-4648
1552-4523
DOI:10.1177/0733464810384592