Galantamine for dementia, does anyone have experience with this

[caringsiblings]

Hi, this is my first post, i'm really after advice our mum suffers from vascular dementia the doctors have told us a couple of weeks ago, has anyone have experience with galantamine, i'd never heard of it until last night when it was mentioned on the BBC chelsea flower show has it comes from daffodils.

Mums gone down hill from last October 2017, before then she had short term memory loss from a couple of strokes a few years prior but knew who we were and where she was, since October 2017 she's confused most of the time with out bursts of her been hyper not knowing what she's doing and trying to leave the house, walking about as if she's 100% fit when she can't normally walk far then when she comes round she's in severe pain, she also suffers from other conditions that cause her confussion, UTI's, blood pressure, angina, DDD, she's in pain most of the time, she's on six different meds.

The doctors put her on a 5mg butec patch this was helping with the pain and she wasn't as confused, she had nearly 4 weeks of sleeping through the night and getting up during the day and was nearly her old self until she had a fall at midnight going to the kamode around 4 weeks ago since then it's got worse the patch doesn't seem to work even though it's increased to 10mg, we seem to go one step forward then two back.

I know we are never going to fix the problem but want to try and do the best that we can for her, the confussion seems to be the biggest problem, does galantmine work and will it help her.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

 

[Spamar]

Galantamine certainly doesn’t come from daffodils. They are poisonous and eating them can kill you. I think it’s from snowdrops, but can’t remember.
Some people have tried it, I’m not sure if it made a difference.Vascular dementia is characterised by TIAs, mini strokes. Every TIA affects some aspect of the brain, so that the disease progresses stepwise. Sometimes they are so small, you wouldn’t notice. Other times it may be a full stroke!
I’ve certainly never tried it for my late OH, but somebody will come along with experience of it, I’m sure.

By the way, welcome to TP, this a very helpful forum, open all the time. Between us, we have experience of most situations!

 

[Hair Twiddler]

Hi,
Yes, I do know a little about Galantamine. My mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The Memory clinic prescribed Galantamine. Mum started on a dose of 8mg capsules per day for 4 weeks then 16mg for a further 4 weeks then 24mg. Into the weeks of 24mg per day, mum experienced a pronounced period of hallucinations every day/night. The memory clinic responded quickly to my frantic phone calls and instructed the dosage be kept at 16mg per day. We continued at this level for over 4 years.
Mum also took Fluoxetine (trade name Prozac) an antidepresant, Warfarin and other heart condition related tablets at the same time. Did the Galantamine work? Well, I don't know. Her dementia did get worse over the years but who knows if not taking the drug would have hastened the condition.
Galantamine is an "old" drug, by this I mean it is a generic drug nowadays - out of patent. This by no means indicates that it isn't good. It simply means that drug companies don't make "big" money from it. It is also true that R&D costs needed to develop new drugs for alzheimer's (and other forms of dementia) are astronomical and it seems that drug companies are not investing their money in this direction.
Hope that this helps...for what it's worth if your memory clinic prescribes Galantamine, i'd be happy with their judgement.

 

[Spamar]

I used to work for a parmceutical company, albeit 45-50 years ago and costs of new drugs, if they worked, were astronomical then. Plus it took 10 years to bring to market, at least!
There is research into dementia going on, some look promising, but who can tell?

 

[Sirena]

Galantamine certainly doesn’t come from daffodils. They are poisonous and eating them can kill you. I think it’s from snowdrops, but can’t remember.

I saw the Chelsea section which mentioned it (and checked wiki to make sure I remembered it right!) - it comes from both snowdrops and narcissi.

Sorry caringsiblings, I don't have experience of it in use.

 

[Spamar]

Thanks Sirena, never heard of the narcissi connection!
​

 

[clarice2]

I used to work for a parmceutical company, albeit 45-50 years ago and costs of new drugs, if they worked, were astronomical then. Plus it took 10 years to bring to market, at least!
There is research into dementia going on, some look promising, but who can tell?

Hi, my husband has been on Galantamine for 3 years. 8, 16 and now 24mg. When he was in hospital I found a patch on his arm and was told he had been changed to Rivastigmine as that was better for Lewy Body dementia. He was distressed, anxious and depressed. I talked to the doctors and asked that he was given Galantamine again. The staff agreed he was worse on the new medication. Since changing back he has been a lot better. They are the best ones for him.

 

[caringsiblings]

Thank you for the replies, when her GP examined her she got upset while doing the tests, he advised referral to the memory clinic for tests would create further upset so we haven't been to the memory clinic.

They more or less said there wasn't anything they could do except pain management for her other conditions, i will ask the doctors about Galantamine after the bank holiday.