ArticleDementia and geriatric cognitive disorders extra2011
Anticholinergic drugs and their effects on delirium and mortality in the elderly.
Article in Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders extra, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between anticholinergic drug burden and mortality in older people: a systematic review.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2020Pooled it
- Drugs with anticholinergic effects and cognitive impairment, falls and all-cause mortality in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2015Pooled it
- Hand Grip Strength May Affect the Association Between Anticholinergic Burden and Mortality Among Older Patients Discharged from Hospital.Drugs & aging · 2020Trial
- What's behind delirium: is there a specific role for medications?European geriatric medicine · 2025Review
- High-dose IV acetaminophen reduces delirium risk in older adults with acute abdominal conditions: a retrospective cohort study.Journal of pharmaceutical health care and sciences · 2025Article
- High-Throughput Screening for Prescribing Cascades Among Real-World Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitor Initiators.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2025Article
- Relevance of Preoperative Cognitive Impairment for Predicting Postoperative Delirium in Surgical Medicine: A Prospective Cohort Study.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Evaluation of the Effect of Aripiprazole Supplementation in the Prevention of Delirium in Patients Admitted to the General Intensive Care Unit.Advanced biomedical research · 2023Article
- Anticholinergic Burden Does Not Influence Delirium Subtype or the Delirium-Mortality Association in Hospitalized Older Adults: Results from a Prospective Cohort Study.Drugs & aging · 2021Article
- Article
- Baseline anticholinergic burden from medications predicts incident fatal and non-fatal stroke in the EPIC-Norfolk general population.International journal of epidemiology · 2018Article
- Anticholinergic burden and health outcomes among older adults discharged from hospital: results from the CRIME study.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2017Article
- Risk of Mortality Associated with Anticholinergic Use in Elderly Nursing Home Residents with Depression.Drugs & aging · 2017Article
- Delirium is not associated with anticholinergic burden or polypharmacy in older patients on admission to an acute hospital: an observational case control study.BMC geriatrics · 2016Article
- Central Anticholinergic Adverse Effects and Their Measurement.Drugs & aging · 2015Article
- Total anticholinergic burden and risk of mortality and cardiovascular disease over 10 years in 21,636 middle-aged and older men and women of EPIC-Norfolk prospective population study.Age and ageing · 2015Observational
- Factors associated with post-surgical delirium in patients undergoing open heart surgery.Oman medical journal · 2014Article
- [Delirium].Der Internist · 2014Article
- Management of OAB in those over age 65.Current urology reports · 2013Review
- Altered mental status in older patients in the emergency department.Clinics in geriatric medicine · 2013Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimTo investigate the use of drugs with anticholinergic properties (DAPs) and their associations with delirium and mortality among elderly patients with comorbidities.
methods425 patients (≥70 years of age) in geriatric wards and nursing homes were assessed. The use of DAPs was retrieved from their medical records. Delirium was diagnosed according to the DSM-IV criteria.
resultsOf the 341 patients (80.2%) treated with multiple DAPs (≥2), 92 patients (27.0%) suffered from delirium, whereas 14 of 84 patients (16.7%) without DAP treatment had delirium (p = 0.050). In a logistic regression analysis with age, gender, and Charlson Comorbidity Index as covariates, DAP treatment did not predict delirium (odds ratio 1.67, 95% confidence interval 0.87-3.21). The 2-year mortality was 49.3% (n = 168) in DAP users and 35.7% (n = 30) in non-users, respectively (p = 0.026). In the Cox proportional hazard model adjusted for age, gender, and comorbidity, DAPs did not predict mortality (hazard ratio 1.12, 95% confidence interval 0.75-1.68).
conclusionThe use of DAPs is very frequent among frail inpatients with comorbidities, but their use has no independent prognostic significance.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.