ADVERTISEMENT
Anticholinergic Medication Associated With Cognitive Impairment in Patients With Schizophrenia
Cognitive impairments are associated with commonly prescribed psychotropic medications with anticholinergic properties for patients with schizophrenia, according to new research published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Anticholinergic medication burden was substantial, frequent among patients with schizophrenia, and spread across multiple medication classes, researchers found.
“Clarifying the impact of cognitive impairment attributable to anticholinergic medication burden may help optimize cognitive outcomes in schizophrenia,” wrote Yash Joshi, Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California, and co-researchers.
Researchers aimed to map the impact of psychotropic medications with anticholinergic properties to cognitive outcomes of patients with schizophrenia and schizophrenia related disorders across multiple cognitive domains.
An analysis of cross-sectional data of patients with schizophrenia or related disorders from 5 universities in the United States within the Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia to determine a relationship between anticholinergic medication burden and cognition was performed using inferential statistics and exploratory structural equation modeling.
Best Practices for Matching Patients With Effective Antipsychotics and Mitigating Adverse Effects
A modified Anticholinergic Cognitive Burden scale was used to rate the medications of each participant. Researchers tested cognitive functioning using the Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery.
Higher scores on the Anticholinergic Cognitive Burden scale were associated with lower scores on all Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery tested domains.
The results were similar, following controlling for demographic characteristics and illness severity.
Researchers concluded that the anticholinergic medication burden in patients with schizophrenia is common and prominent.
“Anticholinergic medication burden from all medication classes—including psychotropics used in usual care—should be considered in treatment decisions and accounted for in studies of cognitive functioning in schizophrenia,” researchers wrote.
—Erin McGuinness
