I do not know where I heard it, but recently someone did tell me that Aricept can calm the rages. Sid was on Aricept and Namenda when he started having rages, and only Risperdal calmed him down.
My DH's dr. told me that the Aricept can cause rages so I don't know!!! I chose along with all the research that I did and his dr. advice that he not go on aricept. I would never want to tell anyone what is best for them though.
Just like a drugs, it can affect people in different ways. Look at Prozac: it can help peoples depression, at first it was used for weight loss, and it can also make people more suicidal. Ritalon: it is known as speed yet in children is used for ADHD to calm them. Go figure!
I'm ready to drop it. Jeff has been on it since '07, during which time he's progressed from 4 to 6. I ran out for 3 days with no ill effect. I've now got my next 30 days of generic but, honestly, I do not see the point.
Charlotte, I think you are right! Come to think of it my DH has been on Namenda for 4 years & we ran out of it right around the last time we had that big discussion about how long it was effective, so I thought that I might just discontinue giving it to him. He had been off it for over a week (I ran out & had to get a new prescription from our Dr.) Well I noticed that he was more angry than usual & I thought it might be because he was off the Namenda. So I got a new prescription & some samples from our doctor & started him on it again (with advice from “Dr. marsh” I started with the lower dose & gradually increased it). (The samples our doctor gave us were starter packs so I didn’t have to guess!) After a while he wasn’t as angry. Like Charlotte said, it probably affects people in different ways.
Right now I credit Aricept to slowing PJ's memory loss. Our neuo said that eventually it would lessen in effectiveness. Thank goodness for the new generic as our insurance changed and Aricept is expensive. Not sure how much lower the generic will be since it is the same manufacturer.
I just picked up the generic Aricept yesterday. The price was $407 for a 90 day supply. That's about the same price as Aricept was a year and a half ago before they raised the price so much. The pharmacist said the price should come down considerably in about six months. He explained that the first company to come out with a generic has exclusive rights for six months, therefore the high price---if I understood him correctly.
The last time I picked up by husband's aricept it was the generic form. My copay for the drug only went down about $5 but the generic saved my insurance company over $100. Didn't seem fair really. No help to me.
I think the prices will drop on the generic in 6 months as competition is allowed to market their products. It is another example of our goverment protecting big business and not the people to whom they are suppose to serve.
With the pros and cons of Aricept, I still don't get the psychiatrist's conclusion. He was treating DH for Schizo-Affective Disorder, when DH asked for help with his memory. The Dr. gave us 3 months worth to try and said "If it helps, youhave Alz. If not, you don't." DH stopped it because it caused more aggitation and irritability. He has VaD.
My DH got worse on Aricept and lost 18 lbs. in a very short time. Stopped it and he gained the weight back. MMMMMMM maybe I should take the rest of it?
Does this say that Aricept and Namenda make patients worse? http://archneur.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/68/1/58
"Results: A total of 177 (44.0%) of 402 MCI patients and 159 (84.6%) of 188 mild-AD patients were treated with ChEIs and 11.4% of MCI patients and 45.7% of AD patients with memantine at entry. Mild-cognitive-impairment patients who received ChEIs with or without memantine were more impaired, showed greater decline in scores, and progressed to dementia sooner than patients who did not receive ChEIs. Alzheimer-disease patients who received ChEIs and memantine took them longer, were more functionally impaired, and showed greater decline on the MMSE and CDR (but not on the ADAS-cog or FAQ) than those who received ChEIs only.
Conclusions: Academic physicians frequently prescribe ChEIs and memantine earlier than indicated in the US Food and Drug Administration–approved labeling to patients who are relatively more severely impaired or who are rapidly progressing toward cognitive impairment. The use of these medications in ADNI is associated with clinical decline and may affect the interpretation of clinical trial outcomes."
GO here to see chart: http://archneur.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/68/1/15
Scroll down to mid page
The lines indicate progression for patients not on meds (black line); those on Aricept and like drugs (red line); and those on Aricept and Namenda (blue line)
Those not on meds clearly did way better according to this study....hmmmmmm....
I'm almost tempted to pay the $30 for access to the full article
But wait! Here is a woman " that after she started taking the medication it felt like a bag of cotton balls had been removed from her head. " http://www.reporternews.com/photos/2011/jan/10/75331/
Mary22033, you are not going to make any sense of this information, because we at Joan's have proved over and over again that EACH patient reacts differently to the medications....with the majority of AD (not the others) patients - either Razadyne or Aricept and Namenda (in combination) seems to slow down the functionality losses for a period of time. Some patients react violently to the Aricept. Some patients do okay without taking either drug. Some have taken the tests for new products to try to prevent further decline of the disease. With no success over the months.
If your spouse has AD, or the other similar diseases, you are the best decision maker for your spouse's medications....if it helps your spouse to be calmer, to sleep at night, to dress and feed himself/herself...then try it. We tried four or five different medications....two we flushed down the toilet after 24 hours!!!! They had horrible results!! One made him seem drunk as a skunk!!! He couldn't even stand up! The other made him nauseous - very.
What we have to do is accept the fact that we can only treat the symptoms and make our spouses as comfortable as possible while they travel down this road to He*# with us to guide them and make their last years as happy for both of us as we can. There will not be a miracle cure for our spouses, but hopefully the new research will prevent our children from having it. There is some hope for them.
I gave up trying to make sense of these articles. It doesn't help us. And truly, until they find out the CAUSE, they can't produce the CURE.
AND I AM AN OPTIMIST!!! One who sees the glass half-full! <grin>
I, too, was sceptical of Aricept, but the doctor prescribed it and we tried it. It took about 2 months and then, magically, he became much easier to live with - not as angry and suspicious all the time. He did have some stomach upsets initially, but they have mostly gone with only an occasional upset. It hasn't changed his memory loss as far as I can tell, but maybe it would be worse without the drug, who knows? I buy all of his drugs via Canadian outlet and pay $3/pill for Aricept. This is a huge savings. I know you have to be careful who you use, but this particular outlet has worked very well for us. The thing that he does that makes me the most crazy is he says the same things over and over again and whatever I tell him, he swears that we already talked about it when I know we haven't. Who ever thought I'd get so tired of being told how "gorgeous" I am (I'm not)? However, he doesn't ever yell at me or call me names, he does get a bit pensive at times but he's usually easy to lull out of a bad mood. A big bit of good news I just have to share with you all is ... today I found my lost wedding ring - I lost it almost 4 years ago. PTL, I never in a million years would have looked where I found it totally by accident. Miracles do happen - yeah!!
Mary, I know you are right. It’s just that I’m always second guessing myself on the decision not to start DH on medication, especially when he is having a rough patch. I wonder – is this fair to him? If there is a pill that would make him feel better, shouldn’t we just start it? But then he has a stretch of relatively good days, and I think I really don’t want to complicate things by throwing chemicals and their negative side effects into the situation. I guess there will come a day when it will be any easy decision to start the meds – but is it fair to wait until then? I am an optimist as well, and actually believe that a cure could come today (those are some mighty rosey glasses – eh Frank?), so that is another reason I hesitate to start down the cholinesterase inhibitors road. I should probably just get off the computer and stay away from the research for awhile…
mary22033 - in the 80s when my fil was diagnosed with AD my MIL refused any drugs, and at the time they were trials I think. She instead gave him ginkgo, St John's Wort, antioxidants and of course their tea 4 times a day. It was over 10 years before he started going downhill badly. He is one that lasted 25 years. He never had a Rx drug until after my MIL died and he went into the VA facility. Then they put him on Namenda, vitamins, B12, and later drugs for aggression. My husband is just on galantamine. We tried Namenda and only had bad side effects. He does suffer from acid reflux, again, which is bothersome. If the reflux keeps up we may stop it. He also takes vitamins and extra antioxidants and Vit D. He has always claimed, and still does, that he can notice when he forgets his vitamins (he takes liquid vit).
Yes, your hb could be doing better if you had used drugs, but then again he may not or could be worse if he had bad reaction to them. Remember, less than 50% are even helped by them. If I had it to do again, I don't think I would even start him on the galantamine. He wants to go off it, but not as long as we are traveling - I can't risk a fast downhill slide.
as is being stated there is no way to know what would happen if the drugs were used or not because you only get one shot at it and then have no way to compare. it is as they say (practiceing) trial and error.