A medication screening tool for cognitive aging researchers.

Abstract

A Web-based medication screening tool that provides researchers with information about side effects associated with medications commonly used by older participants is described. This tool can be used for research purposes to better separate the effects of normal, healthy aging processes from the deleterious effects often associated with medication usage. Researchers can use this tool, called SMART (Screening Medications: Aging Research Taxonomy), to (a) obtain information pertaining to the cognitive, sensory, and motor side effects associated with specific medications and (b) screen medications in their research for side effect severity. The Web address for the tool is www.psychology.gatech.edu/SMART Understanding the medication usage patterns in research samples could help researchers distinguish between cognitive declines associated with normal, healthy aging and cognitive impairments associated with chronic or acute medication toxicity (Marr, 1997). The prevalent use of medications that could negatively affect performance among older adult participants is not often taken into consideration by researchers. In a review of published cognitiveaging studies in this journal (Psychology and Aging, 1995-2000, Vols. 10 -15, Nos. 1 and 2), we found that only 14% of the studies published during this time period (43 out of 302 total articles) documented using some type of medication screening. This finding suggests that researchers of cognitive aging may not have available a tool to estimate (and screen for) the degree to which older adults' task performance could be affected by medication usage.In this article, we provide a description of a medication screening tool called SMART (Screening Medications: Aging Research Taxonomy) that is both easily accessed and easy to use. SMART can be used by researchers to determine (a) the specific aspects of performance that may be affected by medication usage; (b) the incidence of occurrence of deleterious side effects; and (c) whether older adults are especially at risk for cognitive, sensory, or motor impairment when using specific medications.

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“…Forty-eight more younger and 48 older adults will participate in the remaining conditions (8 per group). We collected demographics and ability test data on all participants and screened for medications that cause cognitive impairment (Batsakes, Hancock, Rogers, & Fisk, 2002).…”