OREANDA-NEWS. Anticholinergics are associated with an increased risk of dementia by almost 50%. Such conclusions were made by experts of the British University of Nottingham. 

It is a common variety of prescription drugs that are used to treat epilepsy, Parkinson's disease and depression. 

British experts for ten years watched more than 280 thousand people to find out how certain drugs affect the risk of dementia. Almost 59 thousand of them at some period of life faced senile dementia. 11 years before the onset of the first symptoms, 56% of patients received prescriptions for anticholinergics.

According to scientists, the cause of this can be damage to nerve cells during medication. The authors of the study ask people taking anticholinergic drugs not to give up their opening, since the presence of a direct cause-effect relationship has not yet been established.