Cognition And Anticholinergic Burden In Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Background and Objective: Cognitive impairment is one of the most important complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Anticholinergic burden can cause cognitive decline. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between cognitive impairment and anticholinergic burden in patients with T2DM. Method: Seventy-three patients diagnosed with T2DM according to ADA criteria and using oral antidiabetic drugs for treatment participated in our study. Patients with a history of serious psychiatric (e.g.,major depressive disorder) or neurological disease (e.g., cerebrovascular disease, brain tumor, head trauma) were excluded. Main outcome measures: The cognition of the patients was evaluated with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). The cut-off score of the MoCA for cognitive impairment is 21 according to the validation of the Turkish Version. The drugs used by the patients were analyzed and the anticholinergic burden was calculated according to the anticholinergic cognitive burden (ACB) scale. Results: The mean age of the patients in our study was 50.60 (± 8.19). While ACB was not observed in the drugs of 67 patients, 5 patients used drugs with ACB Score of 1. The cognition of 45 (61.6%) patients with T2DM was impaired and 28 (38.3%) patients were normal. There is no significant difference in age of cognition groups. Attention (p \0.001), language (p \0.001) and orientation (p\ 0.001) scores were significantly worse in T2DM with impaired cognition. No significant difference was found between the ACB burden of DM patients with normal cognition and impaired cognition. Conclusion: In our study, no relationship was found between cognitive impairment in T2DM and ACB. Future studies involving larger sample and higher ACB may provide more detailed information.