JULIO CÉSAR RIGO
Especialista em Geriatria e Gerontologia pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul.
JULIANA FERRARI DE OLIVEIRA RIGO
Mestranda em Hepatologia pela Faculdade Federal de Ciências Médicas de Porto Alegre, RS.
BRENO CEZAR FARIA
Especialista em Clínica Médica pelo Hospital das Forças Armadas (HFA), Brasília, DF.
VITORINO MODESTO DOS SANTOS
Professor da Universidade Católica de Brasília e Preceptor de Clínica Médica do HFA.
Abstract:
Anticholinergic drugs may cause adverse effects, more often in the aged patients. We describe a case of reversible dementia and falls, associated with the use of biperiden. The patient was an 82-year old woman, admitted in a geriatric home because of frequent falls at home, progressive cognitive deficit and tremor of extremities with movement, in addition to remarkable loss of autonomy. As a matter of fact, she presented an essential tremor, which was mistakenly diagnosed as Parkinson disease and treated with biperiden; furthermore, she developed a drug-induced cognitive deficit, erroneously interpreted as Alzheimer disease. After submitted to the specialized evaluation, the anticholinergic drug was discontinued and there was a complete improvement of cognition changes; the essential tremor is under control with use of propranolol. When evaluating a patient with cognitive deficit, the clinician must discard possible causes of reversible dementia, especially the iatrogenic group.
Keywords:Biperiden, reversible dementia, anticholinergic drugs, aged, falls.