Article in 'The Times' on Antidepressants etc. causing Dementia

[Polaris]

"Common antidepressants, bladder drugs and anti-Parkinson’s medication account for tens of thousands of cases of dementia and doctors need to use them more sparingly, the most comprehensive study of its kind has found.

Millions of older people are on cocktails of pills and GPs must take more seriously attempts to get them off these medications, the authors said.

Regulators were examining the findings yesterday as experts said they underlined the need to be cautious about using drugs known as anticholinergics. These interrupt a neurotransmitter involved in regulating some of the body’s most basic functions, as well as playing a role in thinking…"

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Seems to me that what they're not ackowledging is that these drugs will also lower many older people's often low B12 (due to reduced hydrochloric acid over 60 yrs old) even further - causing dementia......

[Gambit62 Administrator]

personally I think it is more likely - in the case of anti-depressants - to be folate deficiency as SSRI's are known to reduce folate levels.

I also suspect that if you went back to the actual study it would show that there was a correlation between the use of the drugs and higher rates of dementia and recommend that further work is done to establish the exact causes ... but we live in a world where the difference between a correlation and a causal link doesn't seem to matter.

[Polaris in reply to Gambit62]

livestrong.com/article/5284...

[Polaris]

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