We are waiting until Ron is assessed by the dementia team at UBC before he starts on drugs. Ron's mom, understandably is distraught over the diagnosis and actually spent the day in emergency with chest pain, tightness etc, which ( I gather) was a panic attack. Anyway, her own kind GP, after hearing news of Ron's diagnosis, told her there have been a few cases of Doctors having to stop practice because of dementia, but after some time on Arisept have been so reversed that they could work again.
What I want to ask is this - does the drug actually improve things that drastically? ( Ron is diagnosed in the moderate stage) I thought it was more that it slowed the progress, and we could expect a slight improvement at most. I have thoughts that the GP wanted her to feel calmer, have hope, ease her mind, so he said these things to her. I said to her that we will leave it to the experts to decide, they may choose a different drug to Aricept, depending on where they feel the damage in the brain is happening.
Again, I'd love your stories on if and how much medications actually helped.
Anne
What I want to ask is this - does the drug actually improve things that drastically? ( Ron is diagnosed in the moderate stage) I thought it was more that it slowed the progress, and we could expect a slight improvement at most. I have thoughts that the GP wanted her to feel calmer, have hope, ease her mind, so he said these things to her. I said to her that we will leave it to the experts to decide, they may choose a different drug to Aricept, depending on where they feel the damage in the brain is happening.
Again, I'd love your stories on if and how much medications actually helped.
Anne