Trial reportBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2025
Deprescribing drugs with anticholinergic effects in older patients with increased risk of dementia in the multicomponent intervention study AgeWell.de.
Trial report in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Deprescribing drugs with anticholinergic effects in older patients with increased risk of dementia in the multicomponent intervention study AgeWell.de.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Trial
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Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
Abstract
aimDrugs with anticholinergic effects are often considered as potentially inappropriate medications, especially for older patients, and deprescribing such drugs may improve cognitive function. The aim was to investigate the effectiveness of counselling on drug risks as part of a multimodal intervention to prevent cognitive decline.
methodsThe AgeWell.de study, a multi-centre, cluster-randomized controlled study, was conducted in 123 German general practices between June 2018 and January 2022. The study included a multicomponent intervention programme for patients at increased risk of dementia, delivered over a 2-year period. As part of the medication optimisation intervention, patient data and medication records were screened to identify medication risks and provide recommendations to general practitioners.
resultsIn total, 808 patients with complete data were included in the present analysis (intervention group = 374, control group = 434). At baseline, 132 (16.8%) patients had at least one anticholinergic prescription. After 2 years, approximately one-third of these patients no longer received drugs with anticholinergic effects. There were no significant differences between the intervention and control groups, with 67.6% and 72.1%, respectively, continuing to take drugs with anticholinergic effects (P = 0.57). Patients reported anticholinergic symptoms more frequently when taking any medication (5.0% vs 33.8%), and even more so when taking drugs with anticholinergic effects (56.1%). Deprescribing of all drugs with anticholinergic effects was non-significantly higher in patients who reported at least one anticholinergic symptom compared to patients without any anticholinergic symptoms (58.6% vs 54.1%).
conclusionThe medication optimisation intervention did not entail significant differences in anticholinergic deprescribing between the groups.
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