Medications and verbal @entity2414 in XXXX : the role of anticholinergic drugs.

@entity1 @entity308 @entity1245 @entity5662 @entity161 @entity2414
BACKGROUND: We wished to assess the effect of three types of medication on verbal @entity2414 in @entity161 . METHOD: Forty-eight @entity1 with @entity161 and 40 healthy control subjects underwent a @entity2414 , including free recall, recognition and short-term memory span. All the @entity1 were on antipsychotic medication. In addition, 24 were taking anticholinergic drugs ( @entity5662 ) and 30 were taking @entity1245 . A subsample of 39 had clinical ratings for @entity308 . Regression analyses were conducted on the memory measures in this subsample, with negative symptoms, @entity308 , type of antipsychotic medication (conventional v. atypical), @entity1245 and anticholinergic drugs as predictors. RESULTS: Type of antipsychotic medication made no significant contribution to @entity2414 and @entity1245 use made very little contribution. However, anticholinergic medication was a predictor of @entity2414 , especially with regard to semantic organization. Complementary analyses revealed that @entity1 taking any type of drug with anticholinergic activity ( @entity5662 and/or antipsychotic agents) were significantly impaired relative to the other @entity1 on measures reflecting free recall efficiency and semantic organization. CONCLUSIONS: Drugs with anticholinergic activity are the major pharmacological agents that contribute to the verbal memory deficit observed in @entity1 with @entity161 . These drugs appear to act by impeding semantic organization at encoding.
