10 Drugs That May Cause Memory Loss

4. Antidepressant drugs (Tricyclic antidepressants)

Why they are prescribed:
TCAs are prescribed for depression and, increasingly, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, chronic pain, smoking cessation and some hormone-mediated disorders, such as severe menstrual cramps and hot flashes.

Examples:
Amitriptyline (Elavil), clomipramine (Anafranil), desipramine (Norpramin), doxepin (Sinequan), imipramine (Tofranil), nortriptyline (Pamelor), protriptyline (Vivactil) and trimipramine (Surmontil).

How they can cause memory loss:
About 35 percent of adults taking TCAs report some degree of memory impairment and about 54 percent report having difficulty concentrating. TCAs are thought to cause memory problems by blocking the action of serotonin and norepinephrine — two of the brain's key chemical messengers.

Alternatives:
Talk with your health care provider about whether nondrug therapies might work just as well or better for you than a drug. You might also want to explore lowering your dose (the side effects of antidepressants are often dose-related) or switching to a selective serotonin/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SSRI/SNRI). Of the drugs in this category, I find venlafaxine (Effexor) to have the fewest adverse side effects in older patients.

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