Different risks of overactive bladder with different dementia medications
Some drugs taken to ease the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia has been found to instead cause increased risk of overactive bladder (OAB) in patients. The class of drugs known as cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEI), are said to increase communication between nerve cells to enhance cognition and include donepezil, galantamine and rivastigmine, according to researchers from the University of Houston College of Pharmacy, US.
The study examined 524,975 adults (aged 65 and older) with dementia who were users of ChEIs (donepezil 80.72%, rivastigmine 16.41%, galantamine 2.87%). The primary outcome of interest was OAB diagnosis or prescription of antimuscarinics, drugs which help correct overactive bladder, within six months of ChEI initiation.
“[The study] found that the risk of overactive bladder varies across individual ChEIs,” elaborated Professor Rajender R. Aparasu, Department of Pharmaceutical Health Outcomes and Policy. “Using a national cohort of older adults with dementia, we also found that donepezil was associated with a 13% increased risk of OAB compared to rivastigmine, whereas there was no differential risk of OAB with galantamine and rivastigmine.”
“The findings suggest the need to understand and manage medication-related morbidity in older adults with dementia.”
[Dementia is a group of symptoms associated with a decline in memory, reasoning or other thinking skills of which Alzheimer’s disease is a common cause, accounting for 60%-80% of cases.]
Read: Oxygen production/expenditure may be key to Alzheimer’s treatment
Category: Features, Health alert
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