A new study warns consumers to beware: a number of common medications, such as Tylenol, Benadryl and Dramamine, may cause cognitive impairment and even increase the risk of death.

Medications with anticholinergic activity are frequently taken among the elderly adult population and include both over-the-counter drugs as well as prescription medicine.  Anticholinergics affect the brain by blocking acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter.

Most anticholinergic drugs contain diphenhydramine, which is sold over-the-counter under popular brand names, including Benadryl, Dramamine, Excedrin PM, Nytol, Sominex, Tylenol PM and Unisom. Prescription anticholinergic drugs include Paxil, Detrol, Demerol and Elavil.

Researchers studied the impact of these drugs on 13,000 men and women aged 65 or older over a period of two years.  They found that, even controlling for a variety of other factors, taking anticholinergic medications was linked to cognitive impairment and death in this population.

Generally, elderly people take the anticholinergics for various ailments and diseases, such as sleep disorders, incontinence, hypertension and congestive heart failure, according to researchers.

“Physicians should review with older patients all the over-the-counter and prescription drugs they are taking to determine exposure,” said study co-author Malaz Boustani, M.D., Regenstrief Institute investigator, Indiana University School of Medicine associate professor of medicine, and research scientist with the IU Center for Aging Research

The study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Exercise can be as effective as a second medication for depressed patients who have not been cured by a single antidepressant medication, according to a new study.

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers found that moderate to intense levels of daily exercise can be as effective as prescribing a second antidepressant drugs in as many as half of depressed patients who are not cured by initial medications.

A regular exercise routine, combined with targeted medications, can fully relieve the symptoms of major depressive disorder.

The type of exercise needed, the researchers said, depends on the patient’s personal characteristics, including gender.

For the study, participants who had been diagnosed with depression were divided into two groups. Each group was assigned a different level of exercise intensity for 12 weeks. Sessions were supervised by a trained staff.

Participants exercised on treadmills, bicycles or both and kept an online diary of frequency and length of sessions. They wore a heart-rate monitor while exercising at home.

The participants also met with a psychiatrist regularly during the study.

By the end of the 12 weeks, almost 30 percent of the patients in both groups achieved full remission from their depression, and another 20 percent showed significant improvement based on standard psychiatric measurements.

The results indicated that moderate exercise was more effective for women with a family history of mental illness, whereas intense exercise was more effective with women whose families did not have a history of the disease. For men, the higher rate of exercise was more effective regardless of other characteristics.

“Many people who start on an antidepressant medication feel better after they begin treatment, but they still don’t feel completely well or as good as they did before they became depressed,” said Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, the study’s lead author.

“This study shows that exercise can be as effective as adding another medication,” he continued. “Many people would rather use exercise than add another drug, particularly as exercise has a proven positive effect on a person’s overall health and well-being.”

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Heart transplant patients appear to have an increased risk of serious skin cancers, including cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma, according to a new study.

Scientists say this may be because when people receive heart transplants, they require immune medications to keep the body from rejecting the transplant.  The changes to the immune system as a result of the medication may also make them more susceptible to developing cancers.

Northwestern University researchers studied 10 years of data on more than 6000 heart transplant patients at 32 U.S. transplant centers.  They found that heart transplant patients were significantly more likely to get skin cancers than other patients.

The risk increased post-transplant from 4- to 30-fold.

“Improved patient education and appropriately increased screening and detection of skin cancers in heart transplant patients may potentially reduce their risk of serious morbidity and mortality,” advised lead researcher Murad Alam, MD, MSCI, of Northwestern University.

The study was published in the American Journal of Transplantation.

From multiple times a day to just a few times a week: Results from a preliminary study indicate that a new insulin drug only requires people with diabetes to inject themselves three times a week and has no major side effects, HealthDay News reported.

This means that people who suffer from type 2 diabetes may be able to escape the regimens that can require them to inject themselves with insulin up to four times a day.  People with type 2 diabetes inject themselves with insulin to control their blood sugar, but it does come with side effects, such as weight gain or attacks of high or low blood sugar.

“The presumption here is if you use a medication less frequently, then people are more likely to take it and remember it, especially as we multitask and try to do so many things every day,” said Dr. Yogish C. Kudva, a diabetes specialist and consultant at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Over 200 adults with diabetes, who had not yet started taking insulin, were randomly assigned to take an existing form of insulin daily or to take the new drug, degludec, either in a daily dose or three-times-a-week doses.

After 16 weeks, researchers found that people taking the degludec three times a week were faring just as well as the other two groups.

Another phase of research is needed to confirm the results and researchers believe the drug will likely be more costly than insulin if it is released on the market.

The study was published in The Lancet.

Click here to read more from HealthDay News.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that it will remove about 500 unapproved prescription cough, cold, and allergy medicines from pharmacies, Business Week reported.

The drugs had never been evaluated by the FDA for safety and effectiveness, and the agency warns that they may be riskier than approved over-the-counter drugs for the same conditions.

“This action is necessary to protect consumers from the potential risks posed by unapproved drugs, because we don’t know what’s in them, whether they work properly or how they are made,” said Deborah Autor, director of the agency’s Office of Compliance at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

Unapproved time-release drugs are among the most worrisome because those particular drugs are especially complicated to manufacture and may not release the medication in a timely or safe manner.

The FDA is also concerned about unapproved cough, cold and allergy medications labeled for use by children under the age of 2 because of potentially serious, life-threatening side effects.

It is required for all prescription drugs to be evaluated by the FDA before they can be sold, but some manufactors simply saw a “business opportunity” and bypassed the guidelines, said Autor.

What’s worse is, some have been on the market for years and are prescribed by doctors because the doctors are not  aware they have not been approved. Many of the illegal drugs are listed in the Physicians’ Desk Reference (PDR), which doctors often use as a guide for prescribing drugs.

FDA officials are requiring companies who manufacture illegal drugs to stop making them within 90 days and to stop shipping them within 180 days. There are many other approved drugs on the market, so the FDA does not expect any kind of shortage in prescription and OTC cough, cold, and allergy medications.

Click here to read more from Business Week.

Lifesaving HIV medications are getting costlier and rarer in cash-strapped states, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The AIDS Drug Assistance Progam, which pays for expensive HIV medications for poor and low-income citizens, has become a victim of the economy much like the rest of the country.  As the federal and state goverments look for ways to cut costs, they have been forced to make program eligibility harder or reduce drug options.  Some states have even had to institute a wait-list for drugs.

This comes at a time when many Americans are facing lay-offs or pay cuts, which makes it necessary for them to turn to the ADAP for assistance.

Advocates for AIDS patients are concerned that the states’ cost-cutting measures could halt – even reverse – decades of progress in the war against the disease.  They fear a landscape reminiscent of the late 1980s, when HIV patients had few treatment options and often developed full-blown AIDS, which they later died from.

“We’re calling it a death warrant,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a national advocacy group based in Los Angeles.

The biggest problem is, the medications are expensive.  The newer HIV drug regimens can cost up to $2000 dollars a month for each patient.

While on a wait-list, some people have been forced to take drastic measures – selling their car, selling their house, declaring bankruptcy, among others – to pay for their medicine.

Non-profit organizations have teamed up with pharmaceutical companies in an attempt to raise money and ease the burden of the federal government, which funds the program.  However, they are uncertain as to when the government will allocate the needed money to the states, according to Jeffrey Lewis, president of the Heinz Family Philanthropies, one of the organizations that is trying to help the struggling program.

Click here to read more from the Chicago Tribune.