What are 'anticholinergics'?

What are 'anticholinergics'?

Neal Hermanowicz (Director of the Movement Disorders Program) gives expert video advice on: What are the side effects of Dopamine Receptor Agonists?; What is 'impulse control disorder'? and more...

Anticholinergic medications are sort of what the name suggests. These are medications that block the action of a normally occuring brain chemical called Acetylcholine or anticholinergic or antiacetylcholine. It was determined a long time ago as much by accident, as far as I know, as anything else that these medications are helpful in alleviating the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease. Drugs of this category include things like Artane or Cogentin and these are medications that have been around for a very long time and are actually the type of medications that where used primarily prior to more modern treatment of Parkinson's Disease and the medications that we currently use. These medications are still in use; they may be somewhat problematic with side effects compared to more modern medications, and their effects are modest generally speaking they are not generally regarded as being as good as the medications that have arrived since the identification of a dopamine deficiency in Parkinson's Disease.