Medicine that Causes Memory Loss: Risk of Neurocognitive Disorders

Abstract

Medicine is one of the outstanding gifts of science to save lives. In addition to the desired therapeutic effect almost all of the medicine possesses the undesired secondary effect called side effect. From the over-the-counter (OTC) aspirin to the prescription medicine on the market, all medicines come with side effects. Numerous are negligible, few are problematic, some are major and certain are just weird. Almost any drug can cause nausea, vomiting or an upset stomach. Every medication carries some risks, although in some cases side effects are not noticeable as a result of sub-therapeutic concentration and memory loss are very common side effect of commonly used and prescribed medicines. The memory loss is one of the prominent causes of neurocognitive disorders, especially dementia, which is characterized by a disturbance of multiple brain functions, including memory, thinking, learning, reading calculation and judgment severe enough to reduce a person's ability to perform everyday activities. In addition to memory loss various factors as well as disorders contribute to the development of dementia. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of neurodegenerative dementia. Including AD, Lewy body dementia and frontotemporal dementia give rise to progressive and irreversible loss of neurons and brain functions. At present, there are no treatments for these progressive neurodegenerative disorders. Medication associated with the risk of memory loss must be taken with more precaution. Therefore, the objective of this study is to show the risk of  memory loss associated with antianxiety drugs (benzodiazepines), hypolipidemic drugs (statins), antiepileptic drugs (older and newer), antidepressant drugs (tricyclic antidepressants), narcotic painkillers (opioids), anti-Parkinson's drugs (dopamine agonists), antihypertension drugs (β-blockers), sleeping aids (nonbenzodiazepine sedative-hypnotics), incontinence drugs  (anticholinergics and antimuscarinic) and antihistamines (first-generation).