My wife has been receiving Aricept and either 5 or 20 mg of dimebon ... or a placebo ... for the past year in the Phase III CONCERT clinical trial. It's a double blind study, which means neither the patient nor the doctor know if the patient is receiving the actual med, dimebon ... and if so at which of the 2 dosage levels ... or just a placebo. In fact, even though we have completed our year's participation, thye still won't tell us what my wife was receiving since the nationwide clinical trial is not scheduled to end for another 11 months. Dimebon had held much promise through Phase I and II trials, called the CONNECTION study, but their Phase III trial crashed this past summer. Patients receiving the placebo actually outscored those receiving dimebon! At that point we considered withdrawing from our CONCERT trial as well, but doctors suggested we stay the course, hoping the results would be different because of the effects of Aricept and dimebon working together, in concert, for a full year. Well ... it's now been a full year, but my wife has declined a great deal during this past year and we have seen zero benefit from either Aricept and/or the dimebon/placebo. Now, of course, one cannot prove a negative ... in other words, perhaps she would have declined even faster and/or further had she not been receiving the Aricept and dimebon/placebo ... but we've pulled the plug and will now see if there is a slowing of her decline by adding Namenda to her daily donepezil (the generic for Aricept). We'll see. I've referred to Aricept, Namenda and other AD meds as 'bottles of hope' in a forthcoming article because current AD meds only seem to work for about 50% of those who take them, and even then the 'benefits' only seem to last for 18 to 24 months max. So, I'm not all that optimistic of seeing any slowing in my wife's decline as a result of adding Namenda. But, we can certainly try the 2 meds, donepezil and Namenda, in combination for another 2 years before we probably pull the plug on those 2 meds as well!
acvann, watch her behavior closely when she begins taking Namenda. The Namenda was responsible for my husband's increased agitation, paranoia and violent behavior. Not all people experience behavior changes, but many do when they start Namenda.