Warfarin and dementia meds

[WORRIER123]

Does anyone care for someone who is on warfarin and taking dementia meds ?
My dad was eventually diagnosed with unspecified dementia by the memory clinic
They said there are meds however they don't recommend any if you take warfarin for atrial fibrillation

Dad is 87 so it's not as if the meds are going to improve things however if his moods and moaning stopped I'd try anything

He already takes amitriptylene at night to help him sleep

Any thoughts ?

 

[Lawson58]

OH has had cardiac problems for years - mitral valve repair that needs redoing, atrial fibrillation, enlarged heart and had a cardiac arrest just over 2 years ago. He has been on warfarin and low dose aspirin for many years.

He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's almost 2 years ago and was started on donepezil which certainly helped him. He had side effects from that so was switched over to rivastigmine. He is under the care of a geriatrician and a cardiologist as well as othe specialists for other things and there has never been any concern about being on warfarin.

 

[snowygirl]

Same here my mum has had heart problems for years and taken Warfarin for at least the past five. She's been on the dementia drug menantine for 6 months now with no problems. Her pharmacist actually comes to her home to check her blood levels and her drugs. The only problem is making sure she remembers to take them!!

 

[carlton ann]

We have recently been given a diagnosis for mum of vascular dementia, she to is on warfrin. She can moan and it's also about nothing. Only help we were offered were sleeping pills to try to regulate her sleeping as she will be on the go until at least 2am each morning, but it was only 1 weeks worth, and come back in may. So far she has had 1 this has caused her great distress so can't see any more being given

 

[doodle1]

Mum is on warfarin as she has a pacemaker. She is on Aricept( Donepezil) ,citalopram( for the low mood) and Risperadone. She has been on the Citalopram for two years, the Aricept and the Rispiradone for 18 months. No side effects at all and the consultant works on a risk/ benefit basis.

 

[rosieh]

Our mum takes warfarin for AF and is on Memantine. As her dementia has progressed and she became unsettled at night she was prescribed a low dose of Zopiclone but a) it didn't really have much effect and b) her GP didn't want her to take it often as she also has COPD. She has been taking a low dose of Citalopram for almost a year now, for low mood associated with her dementia. Her diagnosis was unclear but described to us as "probably mixed Vascular and Alzheimers".
Now her CPN has said she can have Diazepam when she gets agitated. We've only tried it once but I'm not convinced it helped.

 

[WORRIER123]

Thanks all
The memory guy said we could give something but the side effects out weigh the help they give
Seems strange but to be honest the memory clinic has been no help at all.
I will push them again

 

[LadyB]

Warfarin, Donepezil, Citalopram, Colecalceferol, Pravastatin, Perindopril combo

Hi, my Dad has a pacemaker. He was diagnosed with early onset Altzheimers a couple of years ago. It took them a long time to give any diagnosis, even though 4 years ago we were trying to get answers as we could see his memory going, and some confusion.

He has some symptoms that worry us and him. The doctor doesn't seem to help. I'm not sure where to turn for expert advice


He is feeling very low in the morning. He doesn't 'get going' as my Mum puts it until late morning. He tells me he just wants to lie back down and go to sleep. His memory has worsened the last 6 months. He is often very anxious. His main outward symptom is that he really struggles to find the words for things, even every day objects like a fork or a pen. Some days he can hardly string a sentence together (if he is tired or anxious) other days he might just forget one or two words in a sentence. When he is meeting friends he will try especially hard to cover up his problems and they often say they can't find anything wrong with him. He is almost 80. His short term memory generally is poor. His longer term memory is not too bad (for anything of real interest to him).

He is on Aricept which he takes at night, along with Warfarin, Pravastatin and citalopram (we got him on anti depressants as he was so low). In the morning he takes Perindopril and Colecalciferol for blood pressure and Vit D.

He keeps telling me he wants to find an expert who can tell him or reassure him whether any of these drugs have an affect on each other or whether taking certain ones in the morning or night can affect how he feels. (low, tired and cold all the time). Our Doctor isn't much help. He says it doesn't matter if he takes them in the morning or night, and Warfarin is only preferred at night because blood tests are done in the morning and they want the night for the drugs to do their job before the tests.

Does anyone know if the combination or the timings I've mentioned could cause him to feel so unhappy in the mornings? It breaks my heart. The fact he's focusing on it makes me think he feels the drug combination is doing this to him and in the past he's been on the right track with inklings.

Does anyone know how you can find a specialist on medications that might know more than our doctor on combining drugs and if they could be making him so very tired? Or anyone had the same experiences?

He's on 20 mg of Citalopram.
4.5 mg Warfarin
40mg Pravastatin
20 mg Colecalciferol
5mg of Aricept
4mg Perindopril

Many thanks

 

[cragmaid]

He keeps telling me he wants to find an expert who can tell him or reassure him whether any of these drugs have an affect on each other or whether taking certain ones in the morning or night can affect how he feels

Speak to your Pharmacist....they will be able to tell you if any of the drugs may be taken at different times.

 

[Adcat]

Does anyone care for someone who is on warfarin and taking dementia meds ?
My dad was eventually diagnosed with unspecified dementia by the memory clinic
They said there are meds however they don't recommend any if you take warfarin for atrial fibrillation

Dad is 87 so it's not as if the meds are going to improve things however if his moods and moaning stopped I'd try anything

He already takes amitriptylene at night to help him sleep

Any thoughts ?

Evening,

My dad is 88. Mixed dementia. AF and a pace maker.
He's taking gelantamine for the alzhimers. There is no meds for the vascular side of things.
Dads also on other cardiac and prostrate meds.

I assume the issue must be that the dementia is unspecified in your dads case?

 

[nita]

I don't know about all the drugs your Dad is on but I would suggest that maybe the anti-depressant, Citalopram, is not the right one for him. I suffer from depression and had to take several before I got the one that worked for me. Otherwise, I am afraid it may just be the effects of his Alzheimer's as tiredness and apathy were symptoms my mother had at the start.

 

[LadyB]

I don't know about all the drugs your Dad is on but I would suggest that maybe the anti-depressant, Citalopram, is not the right one for him. I suffer from depression and had to take several before I got the one that worked for me. Otherwise, I am afraid it may just be the effects of his Alzheimer's as tiredness and apathy were symptoms my mother had at the start.

Thank you. I think you are right.
It seems he is taking the Citalopram in the morning ( so we will try evening first and then investigate an alternative) - but he also revealed he gets it in two 10mg tablets and he's been taking the two tablets 3 hrs apart... no idea why... and not sure if it will affect things but others have told me the lower dose can have worse side affects!

I also wondered as the original poster, if there was any 'mismatch' of the drugs with his pacemaker, but seeing everyone's responses there are a few drugs you can take with a pacemaker (altzheimers drugs)