Your Life, Your Health: Memory and medicine
Updated: Monday, December 23 2013, 05:31 PM EST
Having trouble remembering things? It could be a result of your prescription or over-the-counter medication. Many common drugs available today can impact your memory and ability to concentrate.
CBS6’s Your Life Your Health reporter Julia Dunn spoke with George Fredricks, the pharmacy operations manager at Samaritan Hospital in Troy. He says Ambien for example has a distinct effect on person’s memory. In fact, the FDA recently recommended lowering doses of Ambien for patients because it can impair activities that require alertness the morning after use – like driving or cooking.
“We had to decrease the amount of Ambien we were giving everyone in the hospital.” Fredricks says.
Nyquil also can cause a kind of ‘mental cloudiness’. A combination of ingredients, the drowsiness resulting from Nyquil can stick with a person for up to 24 hours after taking it.