I just received a call from the NH saying that the doctor is taking all the residents and my Mom off of Namenda. Any advice?

If you really want her on it, you can get a new doctor not associated with the nursing home.

Me? I say good riddance.

Why not take a wait-and-see approach? The nursing home put mom on Namenda ten days before she left rehab. She had awful sleep disturbances. Vivid dreams...not pleasant ones...and, I'll be darned, if she didn't sound like Linda Blair some of the time as she talked in her sleep. Stopped the Namenda after I did some research on it, and three days later, she was normal. No middle-of-the-night wake-ups...no vivid and vocal dreaming.

Dr. Peter Rabins, Johns Hopkins, says:

"However, colleagues whose opinions I value feel that a drug such as Namenda offers false hope and the benefit is so minimal that it should not be used unless family members feel strongly that they want to try it with their loved one."

johnshopkinshealthalerts/alerts/memory/Namenda-effectiveness-Alzheimers_5958-1.html

Gotta keep those pharmaceuticals raking in all that dough! Yup! I took my husband off Namenda over a year ago, and his thinking has been much clearer ever since. I don't need any doctor to tell me how to read my husband's condition. She hasn't been his wife for 63 years!

Oh, one more thing . . . talk to the doctor. I'm betting he won't discontinue it if you make a fuss.

Cut to the chase. Go to jointcommission.org and file an online complaint, tonight. You are dealing with typical administrative myopia infused with corporate idiocy. I would classify it as abuse, depriving a patient of medication.

I arbitrarily took my husband off Namenda over a year ago because it seemed to make his thinking foggier. He has been much better off without it. But, then the fat cat pharmaceuticals would rather have him on it. And so would his doctor, who is in bed with these vultures. But I am his caregiver, so I have the last word.

whynotsmile13, there is no way to know if Namenda is still helping your mother except to see how she does without it. But if she is doing fine now and has no possible side effects, why rock the boat?

That is what my husband's neurologist always said about his drugs. "I can't say for sure if this drug is still effective, but he is doing so well I am afraid to rock the boat."

If that is how you feel about it, then advocate for continuing the drug.

Some drugs are probably not worth prescribing on the very small chance that they might help. But if you happen to be one of the patients in the "very small chance" group it would be a shame to stop now (in my opinion).

I give this doctor credit for keeping up with research and not just putting someone on a popular drug and never reconsidering. He is not a villain. But I think I would have opposed him for my husband.

Thanks MaggieMarshall, you have some really good points. My mom has done so well on it that I'm afraid that it could go the other way for her. Since I received the call late tonight from the nurse, I do plan on calling and talking to the head nurse tomorrow.

My dad takes aricept. There was a time when we considered changing him to Namenda, but the aricept has kept him from not being uncontrollably confused like he was so I didn't bother changing. I would like to learn your results. Very odd that a physician would take everyone in a facility off a drug! You might seriously consider contacting the pharmaceutical manufacturer of Namenda about this....

Wow tough call...Memantine (marketed as Namenda) I do not know a lot about... BUT, IF it seems to be effective with the other meds I'd leave it alone unless the doc can give you a logical explanation as to why not?

Why not, is it possible that you may have misunderstood the doctor or did not receive a full explation? I ask because Namenda 10 mg tablets are no longer being manufactured. The company has replaced it with Namenda XR, that is given once a day. My Mom was also on 10 mg twice a day, so is on the 28 mg XR once a day. I just find it hard to believe that a doctor would simply remove nukerous patients from any drug because they don't think there is value in giving the medication.