Hello everyone,
I am a daughter, taking care of aging parents. My dad is in approx. stage 6 of AD, and mom is starting to show the signs of dementia as well. After three months in the hospital/rehab, my dad was placed in an alzheimers care facility. While in the hospital, the doctors put my dad on several new drugs ( he now takes 22 total). Some were needed to keep him comfortable and some just didn't seem to make sense. One drug Exelon which is not covered by his VA RX benefits is $364.00 a month. When I looked up the info on Exelon, it says it is for early to mid-stages of alzheimers. I questioned his GPdoctor (not the same one who perscribed it) if this was something that could improve my dads life or are we just wasting money that my parent are going to need to live on. The doctor told me that he could not find any proof that Exelon would benefit my dad in any way this late in the disease. He also said that Namenda is probably not helping at this point as well. We are in the process of eliminating these drugs from my dads list.
Does anyone have any experience with weening there loved ones off of these two drugs? If so, did you notice any changes or adverse effects?
I just don't understand why the doctors in the hospital would give him this drug in the first place. It make me wonder if they are paying close enough attention in caring for elderly patients.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any imput would be greatly appreciated.

C or P-
My husband was also on Exelon & Namenda. I questioned their value and ran the medication list by our physician (not the ALF MD) and was told there was no harm in taking him off the medications. They were stopped with no weaning off period. He suffered no adverse reaction and if anything is a tad more alert without them. He is at stage 6.
Hope this helps you with your decision.
Raffeer

Thank you Rafeer,
That helps a lot. My dad has been through so much lately that I was really worried that taking him off these drugs could cause more confusion or agitation.

DH went off Reminyl (same family as Exelon) and Namenda last year. He had no problems just stopping the drugs. We heard the same thing -- that in the later stage of the disease, there's no clear evidence that they provide continuing benefits. Recently there was some publicity that said that taking the drugs might be a continuing benefit but I think that there needs to be a reasonable cost-benefit analysis. DH is in early stage 6. I do think that his illness is progressing a little faster since he stopped the drugs, but this is subjective since we don't really know what would happen if he was still on them. And while many people would disagree, I'm not sure what the benefit is to the patient of extending stages 6 and 7 as long as possible.

My Mom has been off all drugs since December. The heart pills were not working, and the various drugs used in dementia never did really work for her. Possibly in cases of late onset or old age Dementia they have no effect.

Since going off pills she was at times very lucid, and at other times completely delusional.

Except for pain killers, she is now on no drugs. I don't think the progression of her disease sped up at all. It has always been slow.

Martha