My husband's doctor has precribed Lexapro 5 mg. He has been taking it for 10 days now. For the last 6 days he is so confused in the morning, he has no clue what to do after getting out of bed. He also takes Lamictal for seizures, Namenda & Razadyne ER for memory. My question is: Does anyone have any experience with Lexapro? Did it cause more confusion? I called the doctor on Wednesday, however, I had to leave a message & have not received a return call. Thank you for any help. Kadee
My husband was just prescribed Lexapro yesterday. He has not taken the first dose yet. I will observe him this weekend and let you know on Monday if I have noticed any changes.
Kadee, Your husband is taking the lowest dose of Lexapro possible. The drug normally takes at least a week or 2 to become effective. The only thing I can think of is to call your pharmacist and ask if there is the possibility of a drug interaction with the other drugs he is taking. I was initially put on 15 mg. (for depression) but found it made me dizzy, so I cut back to 10 mg. It cleared my thinking & I was much more able to focus. Each person reacts differently. The other suggestion would be to take him off it (ask the pharmacist if it should be reduced gradually!) and see if he improves.
my husband takes 20 mg of lexapro daily. he also takes razadyne 24mg ,keppra for sizures,trazadone for sleep aid,abilify for anixety and mood,celebrex for arthritis,previcid for upset stomach,[due to taking celebrex] 1/2 xanex at night [very small dosage]. his only problem with it ,i think, is being sleepy and drowzy, but this is so much better than he was before he started taking it. i learned to give it to him at night instead of in the morning. this seemed to help somewhat. medications affect people differently. what works for one person,might not work for another. sometimes medications can have the opposite effect on people. it is a trial and error kind of thing. that is why i am so worried about changing any of my dhs medications unless absolutely necessary. he has been on abilify since early may,and that has helped him tremendously with his mood. he was crying so much and wanting to die,i was terrified. he has early onset ad.
My husb takes 20mg of lexapro daily as well. He also takes Exelon & Namenda for AD, nexium, bp med, cholesterol med, and loxapine for behavior issues. He's been on the lexapro for over a year now & it helped him 100% with depression issues. He did sleep during the day quite a bit, but since he's been on the loxapine (taken @ nite), he sleeps better thru the nite & so I think less sleeping during the day. Many times I think my husb is confused in the a.m. but after he has his lexapro, he gets 'better'. This disease is so hard because sometimes it's just that: the disease...things happen with no rhyme or reason...you can be going along just the 'same' and then whoa, something happens to make you think 'what's different' and in fact, nothing is. Hang in there & I agree with Val that the med needs to be in the system for a good 2 weeks before you may see a difference.
I called the Neurologist office again on Friday. I learned that the doctor was on vacation & his assistant had a family emergency. I had to speak with another nurse, she thought I should discontinue the Lexapro until I could speak with the Neurolgist assistant. I did not give him the Lexapro Friday or Saturday. This morning he was not as confused & could perform his morning routine. Hopefully, on Monday I will be able to speak to the Assistant. He does have an appointment on Friday with his Neurologist. Thank you to everyone who replied to my post with your experiences. :) Kadee
I'm thinking, why did I go on Lexapro, rather than my husband like everyone else. Glad to hear your husband is improving. Like everyone has said, drugs affect everyone differently. Sounds like he & Lexapro do not get along.
Hello everyone, I would like to join your little spouse group, my husbend has had Alz now for 8 years, plus,,,,, he is in the later stages, incondenents wares depends all the time, but can still get around and is active, vocabulary is gone, only thing he saids is I am in here , and then his name, he will repeat that all night ,, about the question about Lexapro, your right it does affect people different, for Don it made him droozy , out of it,, for me I am on it,,or was but I dont have insurance so had to go with celexa for stress, I am sure all of you know about stress,, and the women in the group, know about menopause,, so ya the doctor put me on lexapro,, which was a life saver,, I notice when I didnt take it I was more on edge, yelling more, and cursing,, , I knew I didnt take my lexapro,, that day, ,, when I get insurance , here soon I hope , I will go back on lexapro, cause I think its better then celexa,, ,, a friend of mine who was stressed out about her mom, took lexapro for 7 years,, and she didnt have any problems,, so it affects people in different ways,,I am lonly and like you in the world of Alz, my husbend and I have been married for 36 years,,,, I took care of my mom who had COPD,she passed away in 2005, she lived here with us, for 9 years, , 5 of those 9 years, I took care of both husbend and mom,, MOM was a lot easier,, cause she still drove, still shopped, still balanced out her check book , and she still had her mind,, my job was easy with her, just keep her side of the house clean and oxigen going and helping her out to the car, and carring in the grocheries,,,,, I sure do miss her, cause she even was my spouce sitter,,,, well I hope all you the best,, anyone live in OHIO ...
Welcome to my website. You will find a lot of information, support, and understanding here. When you are able, please take some time to look at the home page of the website - www.thealzheimerspouse.com- visit the "previous blog", "Articles of Interest", and all of the other sections. There is so much good information for you.
As for anyone living in Ohio - scroll down this page to the topic - "Where are you from?" Many of our readers wrote in to tell where they live.
i think i must tell you all that i am also on lexapro 20mg daily. i didn't mention it before because,well i am a little ashamed of it sometimes. i can't let my sister know. she just fusses about things like that and always has. there are just certain things i don't tell people and that is one of them. i had problems with panic attacks, all of a sudden when my children were younger. i didn't know what was happening to me. i thought i was going crazy. i finally told my mother in law,and she knew what was wrong with me and took me to the dr. i have had this problem off and on for years,since then,if i don't take medication. the last time was when my daughter was pregnant.[5 yrs ago] she had a difficult pregnancy,passed out all the time so she could't drive,she couldn't be left alone because she passed out so many times. that was terrible in itself and then here came my panic attacks again. it was just terrible. if i had to live like that all the time,well i just couldn't live. i was not on medication and hadn't been for years,so it was a bad time. dr. first put me on zoloft and i took it for awhile and my obgyn wanted to change it to lexapro because of weight gain. i was terrified to change meds,but i finally agreed and had no problems with the change, and have had no problems, except i feel sleepy alot and sometimes just don't have any energy. i suspect some of it is the lexapro,but i don't know. my dh has early onset ad and i have grieved so much over that. just when he seems to be feeling better[he has the problem with crying and feeling useless and he says he wants to die] like everyone of you know,bam,there it is things are worse again. he has not had a good day today. he has cried and wanted to die and been depressed most of the day. he doesn't been doing this as often since his dr put him on abilify. i pray that this will continue to work. things are sure not perfect,but he hasn't been crying every day like he was. i know alot of caretakers have to take a medication to help us get through these terrible trying times. god bless you all. we all need the strength. jav
Nothing to be ashamed of. Believe it or not, most of the women I know are on some kind of antidepressant, and they're not even living in the AD world. When you start talking to someone, & tell them, they will tell you "I'm on such & such." The world is much more stressful than it used to be & add AD to that.
I have friend who has an Alzheimer spouse AND a host of other family problems to deal with. She has been on Lexapro for quite awhile. Without it, she could not function. Doesn't seem to have had any side effects.
My son was on lexapro and was sleepy all the time and he eventually started cutting them in half and only took 1/2 a day (10mg). Now he isn't so sleepy and yet the lexapro still helps his anxiety as good as before.