Use and abuse of anticholinergic drugs in psychiatry.

To some extent, drugs with anticholinergic activity will probably retain a place in our therapeutic armamentarium, along with sedating antihistaminic compounds. However, it looks as if we will soon have available antidepressant drugs that produce few, if any, anticholinergic effects. And among antipsychotic agents, the high-potency drugs have given us a low-anticholinergic option. We have even seen the advent recently of cholinomimetic compounds, such as lecithin, which could have some utility in psychiatric practice. Our hope is that, in the future, a better understanding of cholinergic systems will lead to greater clinical options in treating neuropsychiatric disorders.