Common drugs cause older adults to slow down sooner

Older adults who take drugs commonly used to treat incontinence, high blood pressure and allergies are more likely to walk slower and need help with daily tasks that are used to gauge one’s ability to remain independent, according to new medical research presented at the American Geriatrics Society Meeting in Washington USA.

These results were true even in older adults who had normal memory and thinking abilities said researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

For older adults taking a moderately anticholinergic medication, or two or more mildly anticholinergic medications, their function was similar to that of someone three to four years older.

In a separate study reported this month in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, older nursing home residents who took medications for dementia and anticholingeric medications for incontinence at the same time had a 50% faster decline in function than those who were being treated only for dementia.

Over a year’s time, the decline would represent a resident going from requiring only limited assistance in an activity to being completely dependent, or from requiring only supervision to requiring extensive assistance in an activity.

The two studies together suggest that physicians should carefully consider the implications when prescribing anticholingeric medications to older adults.

Because these medications are so commonly prescribed, older adults who take multiple medications are at increased risk of taking one or more anticholinergic-containing medications. The potential effects on physical function represent a significant public health problem.