Cogentin and Memory

Medications
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I swear this stuff works. It’s great. It does other things than it’s intended to do. Unfortunately, I think it worsens my memory. I started a speed reading course last night, and I performed poorly! I’m not blaming it solely on Cogentin. I think schizophrenia and brain damage is one aspect. I think poor diet, lack of exercise plays a significant role. I can’t rule out my other medications, but I’m kind of depressed this morning. I decided to lower my dose last night to see if there are any changes.

Here are some stats:
My baseline reading speed is 251 words per minute @ a paltry 28.5% comprehension rate (That’s horrible). Basically I couldn’t remember anything after reading. I also tried remembering digits in the form of a pyramid (that is, as you go down the pyramid, there are more digits). Basically I can only remember SIX digits!

They want us to do stuff like memorize 20 random words and recall them. This is supposedly to gauge where we are at in terms of memory. They want us to improve our memory (specifically working memory) before we start learning to speed read.

I have to admit my Asperger’s might be causing my poor working memory.

Finally, the reason why I want to learn how to speed read is because I want to be a better learner. I want to go back to college someday and I want to do better than just get C’s. I wasn’t as smart as my peers and I was burned out getting C’s. I studied twice as much as they did when I was in university. They say stress can trigger SZ, and I definitely think that was my case, as well as smoking the MJ.

Thank you.

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what is cogentin

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No sense in reading "nothing’ fast is there?

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Are you only diagnosed Asperger’s or also schizophrenia? I’ve never heard about a person having both diagnoses at once.

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My pdoc said cogentin causes cognitive dulling. Its obvious that it impairs cognition, it is an anticholinergic. Acetylcholine is implicated in memory formation.

Some aps are anticholinergics as well. Clozapine and olanzapine with quetiapine to a lesser extent. Anticholinergics impair cognition when taken chronically. Some anticholinergics (memantine) can cause upregulation of cholinergic receptors over time and improve cognition. But it is only memantine, just memantine which does this.

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And the irony is that anticholinergic drugs (think antihistamines) can cause psychosis.

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But yeah, people abuse high doses ofbenadryl (diphenhydramine) to get high and experience hallucinations, usually spiders and small insects. I did it once as a teenager before sz. Taking too much sleeping pills.

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