Alzheimer's Disease Support Group

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and characterized by progressive cognitive deterioration with declining activities of daily living and neuropsychiatric symptoms or behavioral changes. An early symptom is memory loss (amnesia), usually manifesting as minor forgetfulness that becomes pronounced with illness progression, with relative...

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Aricept Opinions and Input

deleted_user
deleted_user
I'm meeting with my Dad's doctor tomorrow to discuss adding Aricept to his medications. He has Parkinson's Dementia, Legally Blind and now they feel he has Alzheimer's also. Psych wants to add Aricept, other doctors are not convinced it will help and might create new issues.

He fought taking any medication for years and we just in June got him to start on Namenda and Celexa. He has pretty severe delusions at times, stomach issues, Parkinson's tremors and aches and certain days will refuse meds again thinking they are making him sick.

I hate to see his memory slipping away so quickly (short term only right now), but it's getting very short and longer history is getting a bit foggier. I'm not sure if Aricept will help at this point and I'm tired of the doctor battle going on right now. I'm also afraid that it may tip the tea kettle and he will refuse everything that is helping him... so I'm looking for input, advice, anything you can offer.

Good, bad, ugly....looking for anything you can share to help me make this decision. Thank you so much. Cathy
deleted_user
deleted_user
So sorry Cathy you are having these times with the Dr. I guess I am lucky, I do not have many other issues that would prohibit me taking meds. I am on the Exelon patch and it works great for me but as the rest of the things going on with your Dad not sure how it will interact. I think about the patch, you could consider putting it on his back where he would not get it off, kind of an off beat idea but I am an off beat person :) the best to you and your Dad and God Bless Phil & Flops
GeorgiaW
GeorgiaW
Since your dad has Parkinsons have you talked with his doctor about the possibility that he may have Lewy body dementia instead of Alzheimers? From what I've read and heard at seminars it is related to Parkinsons so perhaps?
I find it odd that he is on namenda before being on aricpet as that is somewhat the reverse of how these are usualy given.
I do know that our doctor should me the results of studies done which indicate that taking namenda and aricpet together do help hold the cognitive level up higher longer then either one by themself.
My husband started on aricept and it didnt really help much so they added the namenda and the two have held him fairly stable for quite some time now but he did have to have risperdal added because of the hallucinations he was having which were becoming dangerous to him and for me.
Hope you can work this out so everything is less stressful, this disease is so painful even when things are at their best.
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