Commonly Used Anticholinergic Drugs Are Associated with Excess Risk for Dementia

Anticholinergic drugs have been associated with excess dementia risk in prior observational studies. Now, researchers explored this relation in this case-control study that involved about 3.6 million older adults (age, ≥55) without dementia who had at least 11 years of visit data in an English general practice database. During a median follow-up of ≈6 years, 128,000 patients developed dementia, of whom ≈59,000 were age-matched to 226,000 controls without dementia. A total standardized daily dose (TSDD) was calculated for each patient with a validated assessment based on strength, daily dose, and length of use for each of 56 drugs with anticholinergic properties.

In multivariable analyses, the adjusted odds ratio for developing dementia was 1…