Dear All
I am writing to seek advice from anyone who has had experience of their loved one being taken off this drug. Our Community Psych Nurse has been trying to take our father off this drug for the past year. On her last visit a couple of weeks ago she said they would be withdrawing it as she did not believe it was of any help to him any more. This is because it is supposed to be for people in the mild - moderate stages of Alzheimer's and Dad is in the late stage. They did stop the drug this week and Dad had severe withdrawal symptoms including shaking, convulsing, jerking, twitching, hallucinating, and was unable to sleep for 18 hours until I called in an emergency doctor in the middle of the night who administered a sedative. I am horrified he was put through this and cannot understand why it was withdrawn totally (he was on 2 x 6mg capsules per day) instead of him being slowly weaned off it. The dosage was gradually introduced until he was on 12mg so surely it should have been gradually reduced? There is supposed to be another drug - Ebixa - for people in the late stages but this unavailable in our area at present so he does not have access to this. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Luckily, I contacted our GP who put him back on it the next day but it has had a disastrous effect on his well-being for 3 days now. We will be taking this up with the consultant at the hospital who are responsible for my father's Alzheimer's medication but wanted to hear if anyone else has had to deal with such an appalling state of affairs. Thanks, Susan
I am writing to seek advice from anyone who has had experience of their loved one being taken off this drug. Our Community Psych Nurse has been trying to take our father off this drug for the past year. On her last visit a couple of weeks ago she said they would be withdrawing it as she did not believe it was of any help to him any more. This is because it is supposed to be for people in the mild - moderate stages of Alzheimer's and Dad is in the late stage. They did stop the drug this week and Dad had severe withdrawal symptoms including shaking, convulsing, jerking, twitching, hallucinating, and was unable to sleep for 18 hours until I called in an emergency doctor in the middle of the night who administered a sedative. I am horrified he was put through this and cannot understand why it was withdrawn totally (he was on 2 x 6mg capsules per day) instead of him being slowly weaned off it. The dosage was gradually introduced until he was on 12mg so surely it should have been gradually reduced? There is supposed to be another drug - Ebixa - for people in the late stages but this unavailable in our area at present so he does not have access to this. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Luckily, I contacted our GP who put him back on it the next day but it has had a disastrous effect on his well-being for 3 days now. We will be taking this up with the consultant at the hospital who are responsible for my father's Alzheimer's medication but wanted to hear if anyone else has had to deal with such an appalling state of affairs. Thanks, Susan
