Has anyone had a parent or loved one do worse on Namenda XR?

I've heard so many negative experiences that, once my mom got to the point that the Aricept was no longer working on its own, I made the decision to remove her from the now-useless Aricept without even trying the Namenda. Unfortunately, Alzheimer's is as terminal an illness as cancer. Even if the afflicted person has no other deadly medical issues, the degeneration of the brain *will* eventually kill them. I watched how distressed my mother is/was during those moments when she realizes she's not quite "right", but doesn't know what "right" is. I've lived through her soul-crushing anxiety & the genuine tears she has shed for either a life that never really existed (only in her head) or for friends, neighbors & family who my "real" mom knew had passed but this "new" mom thinks are still alive. I do what I can to keep her physically comfortable & cared for & I give whatever meds that I can to reduce her symptoms (anxiety, tearfulness, etc), but I refuse to give meds like Aricept & Namenda that CANNOT cure the dementia but CAN prolong the amount of time that she is suffering. Totally my opinion & I'm sure there are others here who would disagree. My philosophy, though, is that quality of her life needs to take precedence over the quantity of her life.

Hi tallpetsitter;
My one thought would be that everyone seems to react differently to these meds. We put my mom on Aricept (early stages of dementia) and she was more confused, worse gait/balance, fell, to the ER, found her sodium to be 118 (normal 135-145) and she spent several weeks in rehab. My point, you know her better than anyone. Can you get her in to see her MD? Could it be a UTI? Those things always seem to set our seniors into a tailspin. What about her sodium level or other metabolic issues? It is like being a medical detective. Good luck and God bless. ntsujimura

For us it was dosage. 10 mg twice a day was disastrous. 10 mg once a day was still not good. 5 mg. once a day with the evening meal has worked well. No agitation or hallucinations. Sleeping through the nightwithout calling out for help. Good! That said, confusion, memory loss, and depth perception challenges are ongoing, but manageable when the agitation and hallucinations are removed from the picture. Ask your doctor about trying lower doses rather than higher if you have not tried that yet.

Quailmom....that's exactly why I chose not to put my Mom on anything further after the Aricept stopped working. Being aware of those losses has caused my mom a lot of anxiety and sadness and that, in turn, has reduced the quality of her life. I'd rather see her severely decline quickly into a state that she is unaware of those losses than to stay longer in the anxiety & tears that her loss awareness has caused.

Namenda was no good for 83 year old MCI husband. He was on 10 M of Aricept and that seemed to work. When they added Namenda, his gait, walking and balance were negatively affected almost immediately. Didn't stick around to see what else would be affected. Physician took him off this Medication immediately.

Absolutely. My mom only took 1 month and we noticed her decline. As well she is taking Aricept and the memory clinic thought she is now ready to go tandem. She started out with the 7, 14, 21 and finally 28mg dose and that's when all hell broke loose. Mom became more withdrawn, less engaging, balance became progressively worse and her incontinence was out of control. She no longer had the "feeling" to go. We have since taken her off and I am glad to say she is back to her "Normal." Good luck.

My husband had hallucinations when on Namenda - saw strangers in the corner or cats on the book shelves. This made him quite agitated so I took him off the medication.

My husband was very confused when we got his dose up to 10 mg twice a day. The Doctor thinks it helps support cognition and really wanted to keep him on the drug [I wanted to quit]. We are now doing 5 mg. twice per day. It seems to me that it makes the poor guy more aware of his losses but no more capable in daily functioning. At least the generic is much cheaper and it doesn't seem to cause any physical issues. I am still very skeptical of it's efficacy in this case.

Same thing happened with my husband. I took him off the Namenda for a week, and he improved. Then I put him back on it, and within the week, again, he became more confused. So I took it away from him forever! We need to remember that all these medications the pharmaceutical fat cats keep pushing on us are always to be questioned.

I urge you to read "The Myth of Alzheimer's" by an American neurologist (his name escapes me now, but you can google the title of the book). In "the good old days," it was called "hardening of the arteries." Then along came a German doctor who slapped a label to it. His name was Dr. Alzheimer. The "cure," which will never come to be is a huge money-making venture for the pharmaceuticals and the doctors who are in bed with them.

Of course more and more of the elderly have Alzheimer's ("hardening of the arteries"). We are all living much, much longer so "hardening of the arteries" is on the "increase."

I hope you will read this book. And if you are already contributing your hard-earned dollars to the pharmaceutical industry to find a "cure" for Alzheimer's, take a deep breath and stop doing it.

My 85 year old husband was on Aricept and did well. When they tried Namenda, he lost balance and couldn't walk straight. I took him off.