Mind & Mood
Common drugs linked to dementia
The researchers tracked almost 3,500 men and women ages 65 and older who were free of dementia. When they matched prescription data for the previous 10 years with the participants' health outcomes, they determined that using anticholinergics was associated with an increased risk of developing dementia. Moreover, dementia risk increased with the dosage of the drugs and the length of time they were used. While people who had taken these drugs daily for the equivalent of three months had no increase in risk, those who had used them for over three years had a 54% greater risk than nonusers.
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