Dementia and ACB scores: how common prescription and over-the-counter drugs raise the risk of memory loss and cognitive decline

Common drugs that disrupt the ‘memory’ neurotransmitter acetylcholine include antihistamines, antacids, antidepressants and anti-anxiety medicines

These drugs, whose negative effects are cumulative, increase the risk of dementia, memory loss and reduced spatial awareness – expressed as an ACB score

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Certain common drugs, including antihistamines, antacids, antidepressants and anti-anxiety medicines, can disrupt the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, dubbed the “memory molecule” increasing the risk of dementia. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:15pm, 3 Jul 2023

This is the 13th instalment in a series on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers, and stories of hope.

My mother’s ACB score is displayed in big, bold, fire-engine red letters beneath the list of prescription drugs I have input to calculate it.

ACB stands for “anticholinergic cognitive burden”. I only thought to explore anticholinergic drugs, what they are, their effects, and which ones my mother may be, and have been, on, when a doctor remarked on the dementia risk of sleeping tablets.

“Many sleep aids are anticholinergic,” he said. “They disrupt a neurotransmitter in the brain called acetylcholine, which is essential for memory.”

The writer, Anthea Rowan, with her mother. Photo: Anthea Rowan

The drugs that bear this AC burden and are responsible for stacking up that score in my mother’s case, include an anti-anxiety drug, an antidepressant and an antacid.

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Decoding dementia

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