Anyone here have any experience with the drug Aricept?

My Dad was on Aricept and now on different medication for Alzheimer's. Unfortunately, the disease runs in his family as he has had 3 siblings that have had it. My Dad was diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment last year which is the beginning stages of Alzheimer's. We chose to put him on the meds. The reason for the medication is that it does not reverse the disease or make it better, but it prolongs the progression of the disease. The medication can hold a patient right where they are with the progression for up to 7 to 10 years. If there is any progression of the disease while on the medication, it helps keep the progression slow...we chose to try this instead of taking the chance of my Dad actually progressing rapidly with the disease. All 3 of his siblings had a fast progression. My Dad is 85 years old, and the chance we are taking is that he could live the rest of his life without actually getting the disease. No pill is without it's issues, but you have to out way the outcome versus the issues. I have had some exposure to people with Alzheimer's and so have my parents. We chose to take the chance with the medication as it far out ways the horror of actually have Alzheimer's. All I can say is, do your homework on Alzheimer's and talk to the doctors...you have to make an informed judgement. Alzheimer's is a horrid disease that is not only hard on the patient, but hard on the family. You have to have a plan!!!

Our neurosurgeon put my husband on Aricept. His nose ran constantly from it. Also, he started having hallucinations every night, usually around 4:00 in the morning. First thing he saw was Jesus, smiling at him. One night he saw his dad, one night he saw his brother, both who were passed away many years ago. And he saw message boards on the wall. A really strange one was he saw a message board with our names at the top and the message said "Please come and pick me up at the corner of 112th & Huron at 5:00 this afternoon." And then our son's name at the bottom. And we couldn't believe it, at 5:00, our son called and he had ran out of gas, and had no money, at that exact location. It was amazing. One night he saw a girl standing beside the bed and she said "You have to move your car, I have to get my car out so I can go to work." My husband got up and looked in the garage and there were no strange cars. Many, many interesting things that he saw. He'd wake up and there someone would be standing, or the message board. When he quit taking the Aricept, they stopped. Kind of missed those hallucinations too!

My Dad was on Aricept for years, to keep his Mild Cognitive Dementia in check. It did not get worse until about 3 years ago, and I believe it was on it, plus Namenda later on, for a total of 10 years. Consulting with a neurologist who specializes in Dementia or a geriatric psychiatrist would be the best bets to get the current info on what to do. When my Dad was placed into Memory Care facility two years ago, the geri psych MD took him off of all the Aricept and Namenda, saying that once the dementia progresses past moderate stage the meds will not help. My Mom has early Alzheimer's and her neurologist had her try Aricept. It caused her to have uncontrollable diarrhea, so she could not continue it. The side effects are totally different for each person, depending on their own state of health to start with, aside from the dementia/Alzheimer's .

My husband, (age 86)started this medication slowly and is currently on 15 mg. I believe it has helped slow down the effects. When the doctor added Namenda, it did have obvious side effects.... Balance mostly so we took him off but have kept using aricept. I will not stop using aricept

My mother has vascular dementia. Her doctor just took her off of Aricept as he said it was only prescribed for two years.

My wife, 73, began taking Aricept and Namenda 4 years ago. As the Aricept was titrated up, she began experiencing sudden and explosive diarrhea--disruptive to both comfort and social relationships. She continued on the Namenda, but was changed from Aricept to the Exelon patch. This greatly reduced the intestinal discomfort. After about 3 years with the Exelon/Namenda combination, it seems that the symptoms of Alzheimer's are still developing, but at a slower pace than most of our acquaintances who are dealing with Alzheimer's. We consider the considerable expense to be well-worth the increased well-being that she experiences.

My mother was put on Aricept when she lived in La. She would sleep all the time and have hallucinations when she was awake. When I moved her to a NH close to me in Fl. I told them to never put her back on Aricept. Two yrs. later I noticed she was behaving the same way. I asked if her meds had been changed and was assured they had not been. Because I had POA I demanded to see her chart. Guess what, they had put her back on it again. Needless to say I raked the NH staff over the coals, big time! Got her off of it and she was back to normal. Sometimes I think they want them to sleep all the time. If you have POA you have to right to read their chart, so do it!!

Mom was on Aricept and got very nauseated. She couldn't move her head or she would throw up and she lost 20 lbs. It was dc'd and started on Namenda with no side effects. Then added an Exelon Patch and she began to show side effects so I weaned her off. She went down in a hurry. It's hard to tell if the meds are helping until you dc them...I'm considering starting her back on the patch.

FIL takes Aricept and next they added Namenda as well. No side effects what so ever. It seems the amount has to be bumped up every 6 mos or so. Started at 5mg then added Namenda at 5 and then Aricept changed to 10 and so on, he is now on 10 of each and we are seeing the doc next week and I anticipate a bump again as the behavior has changed again. Sigh...

We found that Aricept caused loss of appetite - we saw no difference when it was stopped.