My mom has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She is 89 years old, cannot carry on a conversation, drags her right foot from time to time, mostly in the evening when she is tired, is at home with my brother as her caretaker, the rest of us help out. She says yes and no and get confused with those two words. Her doctor suggests we try Aricept. Other family members are not sure if this is the right way to go. Others have heard from people that at moms age, just let her be, don't give her the drug. She took the pills for 2 days and got some dirhea, so my brother stopped it. Another family member looked up the side affects of the drug and it was not given to her again. Since she had the MRI and we now know what is going on, we want to try again but have some hesitation. Can anyone out there give some help?? I don't want her to not recognize us but yet I don't want to put her through anything she really does not need. I am for the meds, but want to be sure. Her doctor said it will only be time before she will need more than one caretaker or be put in a nursing home. Any suggestions out there?? Thank you,

If your brother is the primary caregiver, then it's his decision because he's the one who has to deal with the side effects. Your mother probably doesn't like the side effects either, but may not be able to express it. Your doc sees things more objectively, he says she'll need more than one caregiver--who's available or will you hire someone? You have to consider the well-being of your brother. Being an AD caregiver is very hard on people, even when others help out. What did her doc say Aricept would do? We know how hard it is, we've all been there. You say you are for restarting the meds, but you want to be sure. There's no being sure with AD, wish it were otherwise. Take care of each other.

There's always Razadyne.I have had no problems with it,but then everyone is diff.I was on Aricept for 4 yrs.had diareah but bought depends & hung on.Things leveled out after a few months.........

My husband is 63 and has been taking Aricept for the past 5 years. Unfortunately he had to be taken off the drug because he was beginning to have seizures and some unpleasant side effects. After the first seizure, we halved the dosage of aricept. After the second one, it was cut out completely. If I had EVER doubted that aricept was doing anything for my husband, I cerainly have no doubts now. Quitting the drug waslike pulling a rug out from under him. It has left him with very little communicative skills and serious confusion about personal health care, dressing, eating, etc. etc.
If anyone is questioning whether to take it or not, I would suggest that it is worth the first few side effect problems. My husband had diaheria at first, but overcame it after a few weeks. It does help! And I don't think too many people end up with the seizure side effects that he had. I wish he could still take it.
RAS caregiver Ontario

I've been so happy with the results I thought Aricept was bringing, though I realize there is no miracle drug. I took Bill to his neurologist yesterday. I had seen good results from Aricept, but I also thought it had improved the memory part. Bill told the doctor he still forgets the same as he did before, so I guess whatever I saw better was not the memory part. Bill told me that he has been "covering up" his shortcomings in this area. I was really upset because even at my age he was fooling me. But then again, I thought "you little stinker, you're still showing that spunk I fell in love with over 20 years ago!" A part of me is crying about the 2-week 10-lb wt.loss, but my heart is still swelling knowing he has tried to keep me from feeling the hurt from his health.

Prayers to all!
Judy

My Mom is 82 and has been on aricept and namenda for 4 yrs now. I have no doubt that it has helped slow this disease down. Now this past Monday her neurologist said aricept has stopped working for her and wants to change over to Exelon. She is now in the severe stage but still functional with the basics. From everything I have read once you stop taking aricept you revert back to if you had never taken it at all and the Exelon takes 4-6 wks to take effect. So like RAS said I think it would be like pulling the rug out from under her plus she did not have any side effects with aricept and I have seen several people complaining about Exelon so I think I will be calling her Dr and letting her know I don't feel it is worth the risk at this point to change it. Hopefully this is the right decision.

Hubby has been on Aricept (15mg) and Namenda for about a year. Doctor has just upped Aricept to 20mg with caveat to re evaluate him in 6 weeks. Is any one else on this much?

My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimers at 70 years of age and was immediately put on Aricept. She had the disease for quite a while before diagnosis, because she was not a doctor-going person. Aricept caused severe side effects that made her miserable, so we took her off the drug. She is now 76 and residing in a nursing home, but still recognizes my father and myself as familiar faces, though she does not know the relation. We are happy enough with that because otherwise she feels good and not "drugged". We also closely monitor how much anxiety medication she gets because it also tends to be oversubscribed.

My mom has been on Aricept (10 mg) since March, and only within the last week has really experienced any side effects that could possible be due to the medication. She had to make a trip to the emergency room and was discharged the next day, and we took her off Aricept. We're now trying to decide quickly whether to resume Aricept but at a lower dosage, switch to Namenda, or try both at once. We don't want to leave her much longer without any medication, and she doesn't either.

We're also pursuing a promising new treatment called Huperzine A, an herbal derivative that is being tested across the country in studies coordinated by Georgetown University. I encourage you to check out information on the Web about Huperzine A. Right now it is considered a trial drug and has not been approved by the FDA, but you can get it (diluted) at GNC. Hup A is derived from Chinese club moss, and acts as a cholinesterase inhibitor -- similar to Aricept, but possibly more potent. It sounds like one of the most optimistic new drugs in a long time. The studies are still accepting participants, but candidates must not have been on any Alzheimer's medication for a few months prior to participating. Therein lies the rub.

We are trying to find sources of a pure product for Hup A, as well as a doctor to monitor it if we were to obtain a good source independent of any study. It's very important to get the most pure source of Hup A possible, as drugs that are not FDA-approved are less regulated and you could be getting something that is cut with fillers. Let me know if anyone is interested in this information if we find such a source.

One caveat: most of the people we've discussed this with in the research/medical community feel that Huperzine A should not be taken along with Aricept or any other AD medication. Still, it's exciting news and worth looking into.

Some helpful links:

http://adcs.ucsd.edu/Huperzine_SiteList.htm

www.clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00083590