Hello everyone, I am asking for opinions, experience, advice on some medication and behavior issues. My DH has been on a very rapid decline, with constant perserverence ie up and down, get dressed, undressed etc for hours on end.Confusion, hallucinations etc. Exelon helped this tremendously for about 10 months.Itty Bitty amount of Serequel,also, at nite. At last neuro appt, we discussed how this horrid exhausting behavior was back, along with massive confusion and inability to sleep for more than an hour or so. We opted to stop Exelon and add Aricept. VERY difficult transition, but we perservered and am now in about week3-4 of Aricept. His up and down stuff has abated somewhat, but his mood has turned UGLY! His aide is frightened of him and he is VERY verbally abusive to both of us. He has NEVER been viscious like this before. He can't possibly be happy with all this rage inside him, along with thoughts we are plotting against him etc. The neuro has left it to me ( I have scripts for both) to decide to go back to Exelon or to stay with Aricept. I think I am going back to Exelon, if he will cooperate and take his meds today.
Wondering if anyone else has seen this kind of behavior change with Aricept?
I hope it's just not another stage and not medication related, cuz I am unsure how much more I can take myself.
i think the only way to know if to go back to the exelon like you say and compare his behaviour. my DH was more aggressive on the aricept and reminyl then razadyne. he was best on namenda alone. try to ease the transition maybe and wean him some not sure maybe you should ask his dr if its ok to just cold turkey switch. not good to be afraid of him for SURE. if all else fails and its not the med then yes he may be moving into the difficult stage of paranoia and aggressive state. then you would be another med for that. hope it works out, divvi
My husband was in a total rage while on Aricept. He said he could feel it building within him. Couldn't get him off of it quickly enough! He has FTD, so perhaps a different situation than yours. After much switching back and forth, he is on a low dosage of Namenda and hopefully won't increase it...makes him a zombie at high dosage.
Interestingly, my dh does not have AD, but some form of dementia related to his cerebellar long term (30 yrs) nuero degenerative disease. It is manifested much more along the lines of FTD.
We have had a better afternoon, but still I am walking on egg-shells. I did talk to the Dr while we were deciding on the original switch..no tapering or anything needed. Just switch one day.
Funny, I never read anything about Aricept and behavior/rage issues. I'm gonna look it up now. Thanks to all!
My husband is on 50 mg Seroquel twice a day and 10mg Namenda twice a day. The Seroquel did wonders for him. He has FTD and was very agitated and restless. He mellowed right out after the Seroquel was started. Has been on Namenda 3 months. Have seen no change with it. His agitation has started to again in the past few weeks. We see the neuro psychiatrist in a couple of weeks. Am hoping that maybe raising the dosage of Seroquel will help again.
Sheltifan, if your husband's problems are not due to AD, I'd try getting him off the cholinesterase inhibitors (aricept, exelon, razadyne) altogether. They may not be doing any good at all, and may make his symptoms worse. Namenda is a different type of drug, and may help.
Someone asked what the antidepressant my husband has improved with is: it's trazadone. An old, pre-SUI anti-depressant, but for him it has worked. As has neurontin. Whereas seroquel, which helps so many spouses on this board, zonked him out and didn't help with the depression (they can't be taken simultaneously). It's just trial and error, trial and error. And what works this week may well not work next month!
Hi everyone. Thanks so much for the advice, comments etc. I also read the other thread on Aricept and diarhea.. forgot about 2 weeks of poop flying everywhere here.
An update: around 2+ days off Aricept and back to Exelon. Poop issues have abated but most important, rages and paranoia have subsided.
Don't think any major cognative ability is back, but he has more peaceful and happy demeanor. Much more in line with his "normal" personality.
Trial and error ...trial and error. Briegul, your comment of what works on even a week to week basis is sad, but I suspect true. Bouncing him around on medications is something I try hard to limit, but I want only the most comfort for him. Like all of us. When a medication seems to no longer work, we tried something else and it resulted in two weeks of misery for him and me. What a horrid situation this is for all of us.
Brigull, I'm the one who asked what depression medication your DH was on. My DH's doctor ordered Cymbalta. I didn't think it was going to work. For several days after starting it, he said he felt weird and mostly just sat around. After a week, though, he does seem to be better and more himself. Also, his pain doesn't seem to be as bad. If it quits working, we'll try trazadone. Yes, it's just trial and error....trial and error.
My husband was sexually inappropriate and paraniod and hostile, taking Namenda and fluoxetine. The geriatrician added .5mg Haldol(he weighs only 135 lbs) and he is mellow, and sweet and much more appropriate, so far, so good
My husband was on Razadyne and I saw a slight improvement for a couple of months. We changed doctors and his new doctor put him on Namande along with the Razadyne and he became a different person. His memory is still bad but his mood swings are less and even the look out of his eyes is no longer a blank stare. Prior to being on both medications I was becoming afraid of him when he would become angry and was looking for a home to place him in. For me this has been wonderful and I am so grateful to have my DH back to at least a "place" where we can enjoy each other.
I decided several months ago to take my DW off both Aricept and Namenda because the combination of her anger and poor level of functioning led to me think "what have I got to lose"? Within a week she was much more pleasant and cooperative even tho her functioning level did not improve at all. The one change that did raise its ugly head was her having incontinance problems, mostly at night. That was not fun and appeared to be worsening by the day. I would hear commotion in the bathroom and go in to find her putting 2-3 pairs of panties on OVER the top of her soiled ones. She made quite a commotion doing so because she doesn't turn the bathroom lights on at night time so fumbles and stumbles around quite a bit. (Bathroom is very large......during the day when there is plenty of light in the bathroom she turns ALL the lights on and leaves them on all day.) I needed to make a choice of the worst of 2 evils and decided to put her back on the meds. Ramped up on Aricept first then started on the Namenda. Accidents have disappeared but her anger and lack of cooperation have returned tho not to the level she previously displayed. Only up to 1/2 dose of Namenda, I've decided we'll stop right there. Thenneck