A Risk Sciences International news item (Last modifed: August 18, 2019)

Adverse effects of drugs among the elderly should be given special attention when considering a pharmacological intervention.

Two recent papers using large electronic health records have explored the impact of drugs with anticholinergic properties.

The first, “Associations between Anticholinergic Burden and Adverse Health Outcomes in Parkinson Disease” view here used a HealthFacts database (Cerner Corporation, Kansas City, Missouri, USA) composed of 16,302 patients with Parkinson disease.

The second “Anticholinergic drugs and risk of dementia: case-control study” view here utilized 14,453 patients with dementia and 86,403 controls from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink.

Both studies observed a robust relationship between the use of drugs with anticholinergic properties and adverse consequences, including dementia, increased risks of visit to emergency departments and risk of fracture.  Both studies demonstrate the importance of large electronic health record systems in understanding adverse drug events.

Posted in

More RSI News

Aging and cognitive decline

September 21, 2023

Working with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, Risk Sciences International conducted a wide-ranging review of aging and cognitive decline, with specific focus…

Read News Item

Evidence-based Risk Assessment Framework

December 12, 2022

Working with international thought leaders in risk science, Risk Sciences International investigators contributed to the development of the evidenced-based risk assessment framework shown in the…

Read News Item

Food safety assessments

November 17, 2022

Problem Formulation in Food Safety Assessments conducted by the European Food Safety Authority RSI investigators recently provided advise to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)…

Read News Item

Value of information analysis framework

October 28, 2022

In its 2007 report on Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy, the US National Research Council  (NRC) highlighted need for more rapid…

Read News Item