OBJECTIVE: To determine DBI and its relationship with polypharmacy and pharmacotherapeutic complexity (PC) in a cohort of PLWH over 50 years of age at follow-up of pharmacotherapy in a tertiary hospital.
METHODS: Observational and retrospective study that included PLWH in active antiretroviral treatment over 50 years of age who have been followed up in outpatient pharmacy services. Pharmacotherapeutic complexity was estimated through Medication Regimen Complexity Index (MRCI). Collected variables included comorbidities, current prescriptions and its classification according to anticholinergic and sedative activity and associated risk of falls.
RESULTS: Studied population included 251 patients (85.7% men; median age: 58 years, interquartile range: 54-61). There was a high prevalence of high DBI scores (49.2%). High DBI was significantly correlated with a high PC, polypharmacy, psychiatric comorbidity and substances abuse (p<0.05). Among sedative drugs, the most prescribed were anxiolytic drugs (N05B) (n=85), antidepressant drugs (N06A) (n=41) and antiepileptic drugs (N03A) (n=29). For anticholinergic drugs, alpha-adrenergic antagonist drugs (G04C) were the most prescribed (n=18). Most frequent drugs associated with risk of falls were anxiolytics (N05B) (n=85), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (C09A) (n=61) and antidepressants (N06A) (n=41).
CONCLUSIONS: The DBI score in older PLWH is high and it is related to PC, polypharmacy, mental diseases and substance abuse as is the prevalence of fall-related drugs. Control of these parameters as well as the reduction of the sedative and anticholinergic load should be included in the lines of work in the pharmaceutical care of people living with HIV+.

BACKGROUND: The use of anticholinergic drugs in the elderly has been associated to an increased frequency of delirium. There are different scales for estimating the anticholinergic burden, such as the Anticholinergic Drug Scale (ADS), Anticholinergic Risk Scale (ARS), and Anticholinergic Cognitive Burden (ACB). The aim of the study is to establish the relationship between anticholinergic burden measured by ADS, ARS, and ACB scales and incident or prevalent delirium.
METHODS: An ambispective observational study was conducted for 76 days in the acute geriatric unit of a tertiary hospital. All patients over 80 years-old were included, except re-admissions or those subjected to palliative care. The data collected included sex, age, chronic medication and any recent changes, recent drugs prescribed prior to an episode of delirium, chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, dementia, visual and auditory impairment, and their combination as sensory impairment, previous falls, stroke, brain tumour, and incident and prevalent delirium.
RESULTS: A total of 72 patients were included. Incident delirium was detected in 8.1% of the patients, and prevalent delirium in 40.9%. A statistically significant association was established between anticholinergic drugs and the incident delirium measured by the ARS scale (P=.017). None of the scales was able to establish a significant association with prevalent delirium.
CONCLUSIONS: The ARS scale was related to new episodes of delirium. All scales were insufficient when it came to establishing an association with prevalent delirium.

The use of anticholinergic drugs is common in the elderly, even in people with cognitive impairment. A systematic search was conducted in PubMed (anticholinergic effects, anticholinergic and dementia) to define the effects of anticholinergic drugs in the elderly. We emphasized the search in patterns of use, the combined use with AChEIs, the measurement of the Serum Anticholinergic Activity, and the short-term and long-term cognitive effects. The conclusions are that the use of anticholinergic drugs is common in the elderly, even more so than the medical prescription of AChEIs in Alzheimer\'s disease. The use of anticholinergic drugs may result in cognitive impairment. In long-term use it may generate a worsening of cognitive functions. It can lead to a wrong diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment or dementia, and they can also initiate signs of dementia. Greater cognitive effects appear when there is a previous deficit, but cognitive effects from anticholinergic drugs disappear in severe dementia. The presence of ApoEɛ4 increases the vulnerability for cognitive impairment when these drugs are employed.

BACKGROUND: Delirium is a condition with a high prevalence in hospitalised patients (10%-30%), and it has important prognostic implications. There are few prospective studies of the incidence of delirium in Spain, and most of these were carried out in surgical wards or intensive care units. Our objective is to calculate the incidence of delirium in a neurological department and describe characteristics of affected patients.
METHODS: Longitudinal descriptive study including all patients admitted to the neurology department in an 8-week period. The CAM score for diagnosing delirium was recorded on the first, second and fifth day of hospitalisation and we recorded demographic data, medical history, analytical data (including inflammatory markers), use of anticholinergic treatments, cognitive and functional state at admission, reason for admission, length of stay, and other events during hospitalisation.
RESULTS: We studied 115 patients and found an incidence of delirium of 16.52%. There was a significant correlation between delirium and age, cognitive state at admission according to the Pfeiffer test, functional situation at admission according to the Canadian Neurological Scale, kidney failure, history of stroke, anticholinergic treatment, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and C-reactive protein. These patients were also hospitalised for longer periods of time.
CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm a high incidence of delirium in our geographical area. Although additional studies with larger samples are needed, we would like to emphasise the importance of several risk factors which may enable early detection of patients who are at risk for developing delirium during hospitalisation. This would permit preventive action and early treatment for these patients.