Antidepressant drugs (Tricyclic antidepressants) Many patients with chronic nerve pain find that venlafaxine (Effexor) - which also spares memory - alleviates their pain.Ĥ. All drugs that depress signaling in the CNS can cause memory loss.Īlternatives: Many patients with seizures do well on phenytoin (Dilantin), which has little if any impact on memory. How they can cause memory loss: Anticonvulsants are believed to limit seizures by dampening the flow of signals within the central nervous system (CNS). Why they are prescribed: Long used to treat seizures, these medications are increasingly prescribed for nerve pain, bipolar disorder, mood disorders and mania.Įxamples: Acetazolamide (Diamox), carbamazepine (Tegretol), ezogabine (Potiga), gabapentin (Neurontin), lamotrigine (Lamictal), levetiracetam (Keppra), oxcarbazepine (Trileptal), pregabalin (Lyrica), rufinamide (Banzel), topiramate (Topamax), valproic acid (Depakote) and zonisamide (Zonegran). In February 2012, the Food and Drug Administration ordered drug companies to add a new warning label about possible memory problems to the prescribing information for statins.Īlternatives: If you're among the many older Americans without known coronary disease who are taking these drugs to treat your slightly elevated LDL ("bad") cholesterol and low HDL ("good") cholesterol), ask your doctor or other health care provider about instead taking a combination of sublingual (under-the-tongue) vitamin B12 (1,000 mcg daily), folic acid (800 mcg daily) and vitamin B6 (200 mg daily). The researchers also found that 90 percent of the patients who stopped statin therapy reported improvements in cognition, sometimes within days. (The brain, in fact, contains a quarter of the body's cholesterol.)Ī study published in the journal Pharmacotherapy in 2009 found that three out of four people using these drugs experienced adverse cognitive effects "probably or definitely related to" the drug. In the brain, these lipids are vital to the formation of connections between nerve cells - the links underlying memory and learning. How they can cause memory loss: Drugs that lower blood levels of cholesterol may impair memory and other mental processes by depleting brain levels of cholesterol as well. Why they are prescribed: Statins are used to treat high cholesterol.Įxamples: Atorvastatin (Lipitor), fluvastatin (Lescol), lovastatin (Mevacor), pravastatin (Pravachol), rosuvastatin (Crestor) and simvastatin (Zocor). Sudden withdrawal can trigger serious side effects, so a health professional should always monitor the process. Taken before bedtime in doses from 3 to 10 mg, melatonin can help to reestablish healthy sleep patterns.īe sure to consult your health care professional before stopping or reducing the dosage of any benzodiazepine. If you have insomnia, for instance, melatonin might help. If you take one of these meds for insomnia, mild anxiety or agitation, talk with your doctor or other health care professional about treating your condition with other types of drugs or nondrug treatments. It takes older people much longer than younger people to flush these drugs out of their bodies, and the ensuing buildup puts older adults at higher risk for not just memory loss, but delirium, falls, fractures and motor vehicle accidents. Midazolam (Versed) has particularly marked amnesic properties.Īlternatives: Benzodiazepines should be prescribed only rarely in older adults, in my judgment, and then only for short periods of time. When they're added to the anesthesiologist's cocktail of meds, patients rarely remember any unpleasantness from a procedure. Indeed, benzodiazepines are used in anesthesia for this very reason. How they can cause memory loss: Benzodiazepines dampen activity in key parts of the brain, including those involved in the transfer of events from short-term to long-term memory.
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