Dementia Drug Aricept Linked to Increased Heart-Injury Hospitalizations

A commonly prescribed dementia drug puts patients at twice the risk of being hospitalized for a potentially life-threatening heart condition, Canadian researchers say.

The study was based on the health records of more than 1.4 million Ontario, Canada adults ages 67 and older and conducted by officials at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. The researchers found a link between the initiation of cholinesterase inhibitor therapy and bradycardia, a condition in which the heart beats slower than the normal rate of 60 beats per minute.

In the study, patients taking the dementia drug Aricept (known generically as donepezil) were more than twice as likely to be hospitalized with bradycardia, which usually is treated with an implanted pacemaker to help maintain a proper heart rate.

The Canadian study is published in the September issue of the journal PLoS Medicine, according to a UPI Health report.

Aricept (Donepezil) Linked to Heart Disease Risks

The study identified 161 patients with an average age of 83 who were either hospitalized or treated in an emergency department for bradycardia within nine months of taking a cholinesterase inhibitor. Nearly three out of four of those were taking Aricept.

Overall, 11 percent of the patients required a pacemaker during hospitalization and four percent died prior to discharge, the study found.

Aricept helps improve brain functioning by preventing the breakdown of an enzyme called acetylcholine, which is necessary for memory, thinking, and reasoning and linked to dementia when found in low levels in the brain. It is approved to treat mild to moderate dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

No related posts.