Famous Heart Drug Linked To Dementia Risk

By Jenn Loro - 07 May '16 11:27AM

A new study hints that medical treatment for people diagnosed with heart rhythm disorder called atrial fibrillation may increase the risk of developing dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. Specifically, patients who are taking clot-preventing medication, warfarin, are more likely exposed to higher dementia risk if their blood levels were either frequently very high or very low.

Atrial fibrillation is relatively common among the elderly owing to the increase of the graying population. Coinciding with the relative increase of patients affected by atrial fibrillation is the growing usage of blood-thinning drug, warfarin. While the drug did save many lives, a new research reveals a hidden danger.

But the study presents troubling dilemma for both doctors and patients alike. On one hand, atrial fibrillation patients may still face dementia risks even without warfarin use. But if they do receive such medication, the risks could still be heightened especially if the doses are not optimal.

"If people's levels of warfarin were erratic, their dementia risk was higher, whether they had AF or not," said lead author Dr. Jared Bunch who will present the findings at the Heart Rhythm Society's in a San Francisco meeting as per CBS News.

For more than half a century, warfarin has been the most preferred drug to avert life-threatening blood clots and 20 Americans are believed to be taking it. Atrial fibrillation (AF), on the other hand, is the often abnormally fast and irregular heartbeat with signs and symptoms that include breathing difficulty, nausea, and tiredness.

As per the American Heart Association, AF seriously heightens the risk of stroke and other heart-related diseases five times which makes warfarin a useful life-saver for its blood-clotting prevention ability.

Because of this dilemma, warfarin is an extremely difficult medication to administer as there is no exact correct dosage when applying it to patients. As a result, doctors would have to walk on a very tightrope in terms of balancing the risk of dementia on one hand and risk of blood clotting (and stroke) on the other.

"Our study results are the first to show that there are significant cognitive risk factors for patients treated with Warfarin over a long period of time regardless of the indication for anticoagulation," Dr. Bunch remarked as quoted by Medical News Today.