Abstract         Owing to a more robust and affordable health care system, the life expectancy of the population has increased. The percentage of elderly people in our population has increased over the past few decades; On the other hand, the incidence and prevalence of life-style diseases such as hypertension have risen sharply over the past few decades. Therefore, it can be construed that the proportion of people taking anti-hypertensive medications has risen over the past 5 years, and is continuing to rise steadily. The cardiovascular benefits of anti-hypertensive medications are well-established through various trials and meta-analyses. However, very little consideration is given to non-cardiovascular outcomes, particularly the cognitive abilities, of these drugs. Bearing this in mind, we attempted to evaluate the effects of anti-hypertensive drugs on cognition in animals, using the Cook’s Pole Climbing apparatus. Amlodipine had the same effect on cognition as Normal Saline. However, we found that Metoprolol caused a deleterious effect on retention of memories, and on the cognitive abilities.

Keywords: Amlodipine, Metoprolol, cognition, memory.