My friend Bob is full time carer for his wife who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's middle of last year after 2-3 years of mis diagnosis of stress related problems and depression. She is now in the middle stages. Since her diagnosis she has been taking citalopram and Donepazil, initially the citalopram seemed to help but the Donepazil did nothing and her condition has worsened and worsened, going through several different phases from angry and irritated all the time, constantly pacing and shadowing Bob to totally vacant and unreachable, she is permanently child like and needs help with dressing, washing, toilet needs, eating... basically everything ! Bob was told about Memantine and fought for months for her to be prescribed it However, contrary to most people's reports I've read on here, at the moment it just seems to have made her worse ! She has now been at maximum dose for about 2 weeks and since she's been on it she's started wandering off, which she's never done before whereas before, he could leave her watching the tv while he popped out for shopping and she'd be content staring at the tv, now he darent leave alone in the room without dead locking the front door. She's irritable and angry and has regular temper flare ups which is something she hadn't had for quite some time but now they're worse than ever. She's also waking up crying all the time. Bob is at his wits end and is wondering if these effects are normal and if it will pass and she'll eventually calm down and get the benefit of Memantine.