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Anticholinergic Drugs May Influence Verbal Memory In Patients With Schizophrenia
A DGReview of :"Medications and verbal memory impairment in schizophrenia: the role of anticholinergic drugs"
Psychological Medicine
03/09/2004
By Emma Hitt, PhD
Anticholinergic drugs may impede on semantic organisation at encoding, contributing to the verbal memory deficit observed in patients with schizophrenia , new research suggests.
Previous studies have shown an association between anticholinergicity and verbal memory impairment. Impairment in visual memory with anticholinergic drugs has also been reported; however, the components of memory specifically affected by these drugs have not been clearly established.
Gildas Brebion, MD, with the Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychological Medicine, in London, United Kingdom, and colleagues assessed the effect of 3 types of medication on verbal memory impairments in schizophrenia.
Forty-eight patients with schizophrenia and 40 healthy control subjects underwent a battery of verbal memory tasks, including free recall, recognition and short-term memory span. Schizophrenic patients were all taking antipsychotic medication, 24 were taking anticholinergic drugs (benztropine), and 30 were taking benzodiazepines. In addition, 39 patients had depressive symptoms.
The type of antipsychotic medication used did not contribute to memory deficits, the researchers report. In addition, benzodiazepines had minimal effects. However, anticholinergic medication was a predictor of memory impairment, especially with regard to semantic organization.
Complementary analyses revealed that patients taking any type of drug with anticholinergic activity (benztropine and/or antipsychotic agents) were significantly impaired relative to the other patients on measures reflecting free recall efficiency and semantic organization.
"These findings have clinical implications as they point out a potential drawback of using antipsychotic medication dosages that may induce extrapyramidal side effects," Dr. Brebion and colleagues conclude.
According to the researchers, use of conventional or atypical neuroleptic drugs may be less important in terms of memory efficiency than their potential anticholinergic properties.
"Clinicians should consider anticholinergic potency of antipsychotic medication when administering pharmacological treatment," they suggest.
Psychol Med 2004;34:369-374.
"Medications and verbal memory impairment in schizophrenia: the role of anticholinergic drugs"
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