Like this article?
Get your free daily medical news from Physician's First Watch.
Cholinesterase Inhibitors Linked to Increased Syncope Risk in Patients with Dementia
Use of cholinesterase inhibitors in patients with dementia is associated with syncope, according to a population-based cohort study in Archives of Internal Medicine.
Using Canadian healthcare databases, researchers compared some 20,000 community-dwelling older adults who were prescribed cholinesterase inhibitors (donepezil, galantamine, and rivastigmine) for dementia with 61,000 adults with dementia who were not prescribed the drugs.
A first hospital visit for syncope was more common in patients taking cholinesterase inhibitors, compared with the control group (32 vs. 19 events per 1000 person-years). The treatment group also had higher rates of bradycardia, permanent pacemaker insertion, and hip fracture.
The authors note that cholinesterase inhibitors could increase cholinergic activity in the cardiovascular system, which would lead "to a variety of changes, including bradyarrhythmias." They conclude: "The risk of these previously underrecognized serious adverse events must be carefully weighed against the drugs' generally modest benefits."
LINK(S):
Archives of Internal Medicine article (Free abstract; full text requires subscription)
Published in Physician's First Watch May 12, 2009
Your Remark:
To ensure that your Reader Remark is not formatted as one long paragraph, precede new paragraphs with either a blank line or an indentation.