My area of interest is Memantine for vascular dementia.Thanks for the replies @Dragonfly1. We've never seen a memory clinic so GP must have prescribed the memantine. He's gone up to the 10 mg dose today, I don't know what to expect. He's been doing OK on the 5 mg dose, anger has subsided and his awareness, eye sight and vocabulary are much improved. He's not sitting with his head hung morosely like he was on Donepezil. The toileting is a bit hit and miss, we had a good routine going and now he doesn't seem so aware of the need to go. But I do wonder why he needs to go up to 20 mg (it goes up weekly) and worried about side effects. Agree with you about skepticism with meds, do they really help or do they actually hinder? I've been researching on the web and read articles which state that the Alzheimer meds offer only a tiny help with the condition.
I stumbled on a transcript of a meeting of dementia experts, from a country where you pay for your meds ( I can’t remember which one it was !) they were reporting success with vascular dementia. At present it is not prescribed for vascular dementia in the uk. I have had an interest since then.
I have cut and paste this from one article I have read.
It is boring except the conclusion at the bottom.
Results— After 28 weeks, the mean ADAS-cog scores were significantly improved relative to placebo. In the intention-to-treat population, the memantine group mean score had gained an average of 0.4 points, whereas the placebo group mean score had declined by 1.6 points, ie, a difference of 2.0 points (95% confidence interval, 0.49 to 3.60). The response rate for CIBIC-plus, defined as improved or stable, was 60% with memantine compared with 52% with placebo (P=0.227, intention to treat). Among the secondary efficacy parameters, which were analyzed in the per-protocol subset, MMSE was significantly improved with memantine compared with deterioration with placebo (P=0.003). The Gottfries-Brane-Steen Scale intellectual function subscore and the Nurses’ Observation Scale for Geriatric Patients disturbing behavior dimension also showed differences in favor of memantine (P=0.04 and P=0.07, respectively). Memantine was well tolerated with a frequency of adverse events comparable to placebo.
Conclusions— In patients with mild to moderate vascular dementia, memantine 20 mg/d improved cognition consistently across different cognitive scales, with at least no deterioration in global functioning and behavior. It was devoid of concerning side effects.