Several Common Drugs Are Linked to Dementia
It is well-known that dementia is often a result of aging. However, sometimes it can be caused by medications.
Drug-induced dementia is a type of reversible dementia different from common neurodegenerative disorders, wrote late neurologist and neurosurgeon Dr. K.K. Jain.
Several drugs increase the risks of dementia, the most prominent being anticholinergic drugs, anti-epileptics, oncology drugs, and sedative-hypnotic drugs. These are all common prescriptions for older people.
The Link Between Dementia and Common Drugs
Psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin, who has published several books on psychopharmacology, told The Epoch Times that most drugs on the market have some degree of neurotoxicity, which can lead to cognitive and neurological side effects.
Not everyone will be affected by a drug’s neurotoxic effects, although older people and those with brain deficits are more vulnerable.
With illnesses that surface in old age and the pills prescribed to treat each symptom, older people also tend to be the most likely cohort to be prescribed drugs that damage their cognition.
For example, many drugs prescribed to treat Parkinson’s disease are linked with dementia risks because they block acetylcholine in the brain as a way of preventing tremors and sudden movements in patients. Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that also facilitates cognitive function.
Within the literature, the most well-known class of drugs that can induce dementia are anticholinergic drugs.
Anticholinergic drugs block autonomic muscle movements and various bodily functions and are often prescribed for cramping and spasms in various organs. They also function as a sedative.
When neurons become unable to release acetylcholine, either because of age or drug effects, their contact with other neurons is reduced. The neurons and brain then start to shrink.
This has also been observed in research published by Indiana University professor Shannon Risacher, who has a doctorate in medical neuroscience. She found that people taking anticholinergic drugs have greater shrinkage of overall brain volume.
Examples of anticholinergic drugs include diphenhydramine, the active compound in Benadryl, Tylenol PM, and Advil PM. They also include common medications for Parkinson’s disease, such as benztropine and trihexyphenidyl.
Antidepressants, Other Drugs, and Polypharmacy
Antidepressants, anti-epileptics, hypnotic sedatives, and opioids have also been shown to increase a person’s risk of dementia. These, along with anti-Parkinson’s drugs, are all psychoactive.
Older people with dementia are often prescribed antidepressants, anti-epileptics, and sedative drugs to help manage depression and aggression that can arise.
However, Dr. Breggin highlighted that an irony is that the drugs prescribed to patients to improve these conditions may very well exacerbate their illness.
Drugs not prescribed for psychoactive treatment have also been linked to dementia.
Furthermore, prescribing multiple drugs to a patient—a practice known as polypharmacy—may cause cumulative adverse effects.
The Complex Brain
While many psychoactive drugs on the market attempt to “fix” the brain, how the organ is supposed to function at baseline largely remains a mystery.
“There are hundreds of neurotransmitters we don’t know about and maybe thousands of transmitters,” Dr. Breggin said. “We just have a few that are deeply affected by psych drugs, and [those are the ones we] could study because the drug companies in the pharmaceutical industry pay for that.”
Dr. Breggin argues that psychoactive drugs, which aim to address biochemical imbalances within the brain, actually cause the brain to become further maladapted.
He gave the example of SSRIs, which increase serotonin levels by blocking serotonin removal.
Dr. Breggin has observed that the brain experiences two changes while on the drug: It reduces serotonin production, and reduces the power of the serotonin removal system.
Source: Epoch Times
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
Trackback from your site.
Tom
| #
Does big pharma make any healthy drugs? Guess again.
Reply
Anapat
| #
Placebo?
Reply
Wisenox
| #
EMF radiation induces intracellular calcium signaling, which causes the subsequent phosphorylation of the MEK/ERK2 pathway. This leads to the permanent inhibition of ACHE and synaptic impairment.
Early onset cataracts are another symptom of EMF harm that gets ignored in favor of digital enslavement. Their agenda to enslave innocent people under CBDC, social credit score oppression, 15 minute prisons and AI control of brains through carbon nanotubes and electrodes is way to important for them to be concerned with such frivolous things as harming your health.
Reply