my mother was on aricept and namenda for years on and off before i knew and started taking care of her. the dr put her on higher doses of both and we noticed she would get angry and have mood swings. aricept can cause that in people, so the dr let me take her off and in the last 4 months, no mood swings or anger episodes. she is still on namenda 2 times a day and have not noticed much difference in memory loss, but a happier person is better. don't know what her memory would be like if she were not on them all this time. I have recently read that a b complex vitamin is very helpful.
I saw a big improvement with my mom. She started taking both Aricept and Namenda at the same time last Dec. She had been steadily declining in function and one of the things she had stopped doing was reading. This happened maybe 1-2 months before she started the meds. After a week or so on the meds, she started reading again. We saw other improvements too.
Of course, due to the nature of Alz, she has declined more and no longer reads. But I do think it helped for a while. She's still on it now. I read somewhere that after 6 mo to a year, it no longer helps. But she isn't having any adverse reaction, so I don't see any reason to take her off it yet.
It does help some people. It is typically prescribed to take at bedtime, if there is issues with sleeping - discuss with the prescribing physician taking it in the morning. This has helped my MIL tremendously.
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Of course, due to the nature of Alz, she has declined more and no longer reads. But I do think it helped for a while. She's still on it now. I read somewhere that after 6 mo to a year, it no longer helps. But she isn't having any adverse reaction, so I don't see any reason to take her off it yet.
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