anticholinergics can exacerbate symptoms of dementia

Lower urinary tract dysfunction (LUTD) is a common health challenge in dementia patients with significant morbidity and socioeconomic burden. It often causes lower urinary tract (LUT) symptoms, restricts activities of daily life, and impairs quality of life. Among several LUT symptoms, urinary incontinence (UI) is the most prominent storage symptom in the later stages of dementia. UI in patients with dementia results not only from cognitive impairment, but also from urological defects such as detrusor overactivity...

Dementia in Parkinson's disease encompasses a spectrum relating to motor, psychiatric, and cognitive symptoms that are classified as either Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) (initial cognitive symptoms) or Parkinson's Disease Dementia (PDD) (initial motor signs preceding cognitive symptoms by at least a year). Anticholinergic and antipsychotic drugs have a high risk of adverse cognitive and/or motor effects, so their use should be minimized or avoided. Neuroleptic sensitivity is a severe psychomotor adverse reaction that is particularly associated with potent dopamine-blocking agents such as haloperidol...

Dementia with Lewy bodies appears to be the second most common form of dementia, accounting for about one in five cases. The condition is characterized by dementia accompanied by delirium, visual hallucinations, and parkinsonism. Other common symptoms include syncope, falls, sleep disorders, and depression. The presence of both Lewy bodies and amyloidplaques with deficiencies in both acetylcholine and dopamine neurotransmitters suggests that dementia with Lewy bodies represents the middle of a disease spectrum ranging from Alzheimer's disease to Parkinson's disease...