My DH has been on aricept for a couple months now,since my daughter's and I see no difference,can this just be stopped?I would gladly pay the price if it helped.Am I expecting results too soon?
Our doctor stopped the Aricept after he reached the Moderate-Severe Stage...Late 6. It's really for earlier stages of the disease, or so I have read. It's said to slow the progress of the disease. Who wants to slow down and hold in the Severe stage?? I know that my husband would not have wanted to remain in that stage.
I wondered the same thing, Zibby. My DH was already early Stage 5 when diagnosed and I don't believe it slowed anything down after that. He went down steadily month after month IMHO.
I thought the intent of aricept was to slow the progression of symptoms, not to reverse them. If you aren't seeing a difference, it seems to me it might be working. That is, his symptoms aren't worsening. I wouldn't stop it unless he was getting worse fairly quickly or was having side effects - but that's me. The trouble is you can't know for sure that the medication is what is causing him progress slowly.I would ask the doctor before stopping it.
I agree with Janet. This may be semantics, but all the AD meds don't really slow down anything, they are just supposed to help with functioning. My thinking is that if one can afford the meds, go ahead and give them because things might be even worse without. There are no meds that affect the disease process itself at this point.
I agree with both of you ladies....and that is why I haven't asked about stopping meds. My DH is on Exelon patch (for almost 3 yrs) and Namenda ( for 5 yrs); there may have been some improvement in functioning, still a lot of confusion with ADLs, but who knows what would happen if they were stopped....would he be worse?
bella, that's a possibility. I asked my husband's neurologist about stopping aricept and he told me that as long as I can afford it he would like to keep him on it. He has had experience with other patients who have stopped aricept and had a quick downhill turn. One, for instance, lost his ability to speak a week after he stopped taking aricept. So, for now, I will keep my husband on it.