Aricept

[sek.kong]

This is probably going to sound a bit weird.... Mum's been put on Aricept, low dose for a month, then if all goes well up to 10mg.
I was talking to my other half saying that there didn't seem to be much of a difference in Mum (I know it's not long) but then he said that if it was working (ie keeping her on an even keel) there won't be anything to notice!
Hmm, how true (damn him)
Have I really got to wait till they reassess her in three months or has anyone noticed a change for the better?
Touch wood there have been no side effects -phew, having read other posts.
Or should I just not be so damned impatient????

 

[bernie]

I don't think you will notice a change, which is the good thing. If she had not been on the drug you may have noticed a decline.

Articept hopefully slows down the rate of decline for a short period. once the body gets used to the drug there is normally a rapid decline and eventually the patient gets to the condition they would have been in without the drug.

 

[Nebiroth]

Aricept helps with the symptoms but does not halt the progressive damage being done by the disease so at best it helps slow the decline by helping with some of the symptoms.

AFAIK people with AD have a shortage of a neurotransmitter in the brain. Aricept helps increase the level of that. But as the disease progresses the levels continue to drop. sadly, you cannot be given ever more Aricept to compensate because as with many drugs there comes a point at which the drug itself would reach toxic levels.

Different people react in different ways. Some get no benefit at al, some halt their decline for a while, some show an improvement for a while.

I don't think you would notice much if anything after the first month on the low dose, this is more to make sure that the person taking it will not react badly to the drug. A month is also too short a period to decide what is happening. You need a longer period than that, at which point you can see whether the person has declined as much as they would be expected to without the drug, or not.

So unfortuately you will have to just wait and see.

 

[Norman]

Hi Sek kong
No two AD sufferers are alike.
Likewise Aricept acts in different ways with different patients.
My wife has been taking Aricept tablets for over 11 years now.
There is a very slow decline,but 11 years!!
You can only wait and see,I think your husband gave you the right answer.
Someone on here once said"You have seen one AD sufferer and you have seen one AD sufferer"
Norman

 

[Nebiroth]

This is very true. You often read that the "best you can hope for" is that the decline will be slowed.

But in my Dad's case there was a substantial improvement after a couple of months. His MMSE scores rose by several points - and the Memory Nurse said it was possible for the score to possibly rise a bit further. Of course he will likely decline again as the damage progresses but we don't know how fast that will be.

she also has one AD patient whose score has not changed for six years.

But I don not want to raise false hopes, because other patients have got no benefit from the drug at all.

The original poster will have to wait somewhat longer than a month to see what happens, particularly as the first month is the 5mg per day dose, not the full 10mg.

The mechanisms of AD are not really understood and every patient presents a unique case.

All you can do is to treasure each day.