Drugs for mild dementia

smallzoo

New member
Apr 3, 2018
4
0
My Mum 98 has mild dementia but over the last few weeks she has had a few problems which seem to have made it worse at night, She wakes up not wanting it to be alone. She's fine most of the time and as I said its mild dementia, that doesnt mean she is not distressed though when it happens.

Does anyone have any knowledge of Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors such as Donepezil (also known as Aricept), rivastigmine (Exelon) and galantamine (Reminyl) and the other drug Memantine ?

I want to help her sleep at night better and get less anxiety

The issue I have is that she has heart failure and kidney issues ( age related ) so I would need to know whether they cannot be used.

The GP doesnt seem to understand how horrible dementia is even if its relatively mild. When she has visited has been fine.

I presume there are no doctors that frequent this forum that could tell me if I gave the current medications.
 

Quite contrary

Registered User
Jan 5, 2020
472
0
Ilford, Essex
Hello @smallzoo Dementia medications can only be prescribed by the consultant at the memory clinic. It sounds from what you have said that your mum might benefit from something like Mirtazepine which is prescribed for anxiety and sleep problems.
 

jennifer1967

Registered User
Mar 15, 2020
23,146
0
Southampton
with my husband, it was Older People Mental Health that assessed him and that consultant asked the GP to prescribe them. they also can prescribe mirtzapine as they were looking at it as well. they did a follow up to review of how the memantine was working. in my husbands case, he was tested at the memory clinic, diagnosed 3 days later and discharged. we havent had any contact with them since but go through the gp if anything needs doing or referring. i think its because he has vascular and there are no treatments.
 

lollyc

Registered User
Sep 9, 2020
947
0
We have no input from a Memory Clinic but Mum has been prescribed Mirtazipine and Quetiapine for exactly this situation by her GP.
She lives with me, and the terrible anxiety, crying etc., was unbearable for both of us. GP was initially very reluctant to prescribe, but I was persistent, and possibly quite rude! I'm not normally (or didn't used to be), but my mother simply could not continue like this. Personally I feel that it is cruel to expect someone to live with this level of anxiety.
It may be worth you speaking to a different GP and explaining your concerns.
I've recently had to ask for dosage to be increased, and Mum's current GP (had 3 in the last 3 years, and this one had never seen her) wasn't keen. Spoke to my own GP , who decided that Mum was on very low doses and an increase was acceptable. In fairness her new GP is newly qualified and perhaps felt he lacked the experience to make the decision.
 

Yvonne9496

New member
Nov 18, 2021
2
0
My Mum has recently been diagnosed with early stages of Alzheimers after two years of odd behaviour. The memory clinic prescribed Donepezil which did not agree with her at all. It sparked hallucinations and high anxiety for her. We have now been prescribed Galantamine to try which I am cautious about giving to her as I have read it could have similar effects. The memory clinic mentioned there was a drug which could be administered through patches but they will not prescribe until we have trialled the Galantamine. Does anyone know which drug might be administered through a patch? Many thanks
 

silkiest

Registered User
Feb 9, 2017
865
0
Hi memantine is commonly prescribed in alzheimers and can be administered via a patch
 

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