Durjoy Lahiri, Bruna Seixas-Lima, Carlos Roncero, Kathryn Stokes, Swayang Sudha Panda, Howard Chertkow
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Psychotropic polypharmacy presents a diagnostic challenge that may be further complicated by inadequate medication history and underappreciation of the cognitive effects of such polypharmacy. Here we present the case of a 57-year-old man who presented to our memory clinic with progressive cognitive decline and a prior neuropsychological evaluation supporting the diagnosis of a neurodegenerative disorder. He was taking multiple psychotropic medications at the time, but the exact dosages were unclear due to a lack of collateral history. He was also taking prescribed opioids and a combination of buprenorphine and naloxone for pain relief, again with unclear dosages at the time of presentation. Brain imaging and cerebrospinal spinal fluid biomarker testing were negative for Alzheimer pathophysiologic processes. Months later, the patient was taken to the emergency room after an overdose caused by overuse of opioid medications. Once he was taken off all psychoactive medications, the patient's cognitive impairment completely reversed, and he became independent in activities of daily living. Psychotropic polypharmacy can have a myriad of cognitive manifestations which need to be better recognized by clinicians. Deprescription of such medications should be attempted whenever clinically appropriate.
期刊介绍:
Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology (CBN) is a forum for advances in the neurologic understanding and possible treatment of human disorders that affect thinking, learning, memory, communication, and behavior. As an incubator for innovations in these fields, CBN helps transform theory into practice. The journal serves clinical research, patient care, education, and professional advancement.
The journal welcomes contributions from neurology, cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, and other relevant fields. The editors particularly encourage review articles (including reviews of clinical practice), experimental and observational case reports, instructional articles for interested students and professionals in other fields, and innovative articles that do not fit neatly into any category. Also welcome are therapeutic trials and other experimental and observational studies, brief reports, first-person accounts of neurologic experiences, position papers, hypotheses, opinion papers, commentaries, historical perspectives, and book reviews.