Hi I am new to this forum. My mum is 75 and was diagnosed with AD last year and it's been a difficult journey for all of us. At one point she was on Donezapil but did get very violent and demanded to come off all her meds and this did seem to stop the violence so I wonder if she knew it was doing something to her or if it was just a coincidence? She is now titrating up on memantine but is now very depressed instead of violent, crying a lot and very low and has been saying a lot that 'her head doesnt feel right', 'it's like someone is sitting on her head', 'her head feels tight like a drum', 'her head doesn't feel her own' etc. I am wondering if this is how a person with developing AD feels or if this might be a side effect of the memantine but i do think she said this before she started on the drug. Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks so much for your help.
Any others had experience of side effects with memantine or disease progression with AD
- Thread starter Pleasehelp21
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- alzheimer's disease
Welcome to Dementia Support Forum @Pleasehelp21.
I have no direct experience of drugs used to help people with Alzheimer's as my mother had vascular dementia. However I did a quick search using the search bar at the top of this page and I wonder if any of the following threads might help. Some will be a bit old, so you might not get a reply from the original poster, but there should be some useful information in the posts https://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/search/440813/?q=memantine&o=relevance.
It might be worth going back to who ever prescribed the drug and see what they think.
I have no direct experience of drugs used to help people with Alzheimer's as my mother had vascular dementia. However I did a quick search using the search bar at the top of this page and I wonder if any of the following threads might help. Some will be a bit old, so you might not get a reply from the original poster, but there should be some useful information in the posts https://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/search/440813/?q=memantine&o=relevance.
It might be worth going back to who ever prescribed the drug and see what they think.
From what I know, Memantine is a medicine often used for Alzheimer's disease, and it can help some people. However, it can also cause side effects like feeling sad or changes in mood and behavior. These issues might also be because of the disease getting worse. The way your mum describes feeling in her head could be because of how the disease is affecting her thinking and how she senses things.
Hi @Pleasehelp21 1, my OH is on memantine and has been since diagnosis in 2021 and I didn't notice any side effects at all. I'm not sure what good it has done either as his dementia has progressed rapidly but...he does have other health issues as well.
He used to say his head felt strange and would regularly hold it. Or rub it. That was before his diagnosis while waiting for memory clinic appointment. I wondered if he could feel the dementia in some way affecting his brain
He used to say his head felt strange and would regularly hold it. Or rub it. That was before his diagnosis while waiting for memory clinic appointment. I wondered if he could feel the dementia in some way affecting his brain
Side effects don't mean that you'll have them for sure. Some people might have them, while others don't. We are all different, and others might be more sensitive to meds.
