Aricept and dementia
Common Questions and Answers about Aricept and dementia
aricept
My husband has been taking 10mg of Aricept for 2 years now and I have not noticed any significant difference in his memory. Actually, my observation is his memory is becoming worse. I'm struggling with whether I should discontinue the medication since I don't see improvement and because it is quite costly. I also know Aricept is designed to slow down the dementia so if I discontinue it I'm wondering if he will become worse much faster.
The findings, to be published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, are significant given the high rates of Type 2 diabetes around the world, and the expectation that dementia rates will increase as the population ages.
“We’ve known for some time that patients with Type 2 diabetes are at greater risk of dementia and cognitive problems,” said Rachel A. Whitmer of the Division of Research at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif., one of the authors.
No one and that includes a doctor can give a reliable estimate of life expectency!!
Sorry to hear of your mother's condition. Vascular dementia is almost the same Alzheimer's...the etioloy is different but the symptoms are almost identical, and that may help explain your mother's refusal to take any medication...its a cognitive disorder as well. It is estimated about 5 years (mean estimate) of life expectency after the onset of Alzheimer, a little longer with medication (aricept).
Her dementia consisted of repeating and repeating, forgetting who visited, etc. but went throughout her normal activities w/some services very well and very happiy. Always knew us but was starting to forget other people but after prompting she would be ok.
3 weeks ago she developed a very severe resistant UTI and then got c-dift (not sure how to spell that). Anyway ended up dilusional, confused, etc. and then went to the hospital with dehydration,etc.
t know anything about that - all I know is that before Aricept, I was in a gray mist, and after five months of Aricept, everything seemed to make more sense. Before Aricept, it was as if I had low water pressure - I just couldn't get enough juice in my brain to put thoughts together. On Aricept, suddenly my brain could make connections.
The only trippy thing I noticed was an almost hi-def moire behind my eyeballs when I went to sleep.
My husband has dementia. He takes the Bupropion in the morning along with his Aricept and Exforge (for blood pressure). He gets drowsy right after taking his pills and I think it may be the Bupropion HSL SR causing this. His neurologist told him the anti-depressant would probably make him "a little more fuzzy in his thinking". My husband is usually at his best in the morning as far as clear thinking goes.
stutters some at first. after 7 years aricept and namenda pills he finially having a hard time remembering to write and driving. See if he can draw a clock and put the numbers than give him a time putting the long and short hand. My husband left out 12 and made the hand the same or put the point into the center and on time was asked to put it to 9:15 he got 9:05. Write down when he started and what he did how long.
If a person has not been diagnosed with alzheimers but is taking aricept, is it okay? will it hurt to be taking it?
Second visit to neurologist (3 week wait) he did the EEG, said I had dementia, prescribed Aricept and depakote, referred me to psychological evaluation.
I went to the evaluation(after 7 weeks), did the tests, waited 8 weeks for the results.
Third visit to the neurologist, he flipped the report to the last page, he looks up says you are just depressed.
My mother-in-law is 81 and there is quite a history of longevity in her family. She has been living on her own since her youngest daughter moved into her own place 25 years ago. A little over 2 months ago, her 92-year-old since became suddenly ill and subsequently passed away. My mother-in-law was able to attend her funeral with us 200 miles away and she was also able to see her sister one last time before she died.
It has been observed that Aricept improves cognition and function, which includes effects on memory and performing everyday tasks, hence it would have been prescribed.
The effect of memory is exerted through one such chemical called acetylcholine. This chemical helps carry messages from nerve cell to nerve cell in the brain. Memory is lost by disrupting these messages between cells.
It is thought that Aricept may help reduce the breakdown of this chemical.
Hope this helps.
Bye.
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