[Anticholinergic burden in the elderly].

Abstract

Anticholinergic drugs are widely used for very common diseases such as Parkinson's disease, depression or allergies, but it has been observed in previous studies that high anticholinergic burden can lead to physical and cognitive dysfunctions in polymedicated elderly people. The objective of this project is to review these hypotheses and study the possible relationship between high anticholinergic burden and cognitive and physical dysfunctions.In terms of methodology, a bibliographic review has been carried out of the information that exists to date on the hypothesis that high anticholinergic burden can lead to both physical and cognitive dysfunctions in elderly people taking multiple medications, and a cross-sectional study has been designed that included patients over 70 years and taking multiple medications to calculate the anticholinergic burden of their medication and determine whether high levels of it could have any influence on the deterioration of the patients.At the end of the study, it was observed high prevalence of prescriptions of medications with high anticholinergic burden in elderly patients, with its consequences in terms of adverse effects. These results lead us to the conclusion of the need to take into account the anticholinergic burden of medications when prescribing.