Dementia and forteo

Gabriel

My question would be, how fast does this medication work? Does it show immediate significant increase in bone density that will help my Mother prevent bone fractures she might get this week or this month? Or do they want to give your Mother a medication that may have major side effects now even though it will not be beneficial for years......which is time she may not have?

I have major concerns when doctor's want to give medications that have major side effects and take years to show results to patients with dementia or other terminal conditions. Why are they prescribing this medication? Are they thinking in the best interest of the patient as a whole or are they reacting to the individual conditions that the patient has? Are they getting a kick back from the drug company?

Some of the side effects of this particular medication are impaired thinking, muscle weakness, dizziness, and light headedness. Is this something you want to give a patient who already has advanced dementia? From what I read study groups showed improvement over a 2 year period which is a long time to wait for benefits when a patient has advanced dementia. It is a relative new drug on the market so there is no generic. Those are the drugs that give kick backs to the doctors that prescribe them.

I do ask lots of questions about medications my parents take. They both have dementia. Dad's blood thinners and Mom's diabetic medication are necessary to give them quality of life. Some other medication are not going to benefit dementia patients by immediately increasing the quality of life and the side effect out weigh long term benefits that may never be realized. This is just my opinion and you have to make your own conclusions based on what is best for you Mom. Hope I have given you food for thought....

I regret that you too are dealing with this horrid disease. I will keep you and your Mom in my thoughts and prayers....

Love, deb

ibake&pray

Not only that, I wouldn't be real excited to have my mom have an injection every day for two years...which is the recommended length of time for treatments.

My doctor wouldn't let me switch from fosomax to the once a month pill because there wasn't enough history on it...and this doctor wants to put your mother on shots every day? I read the same study Deb did and I agree. Your mother is already suffering from AZ. She doesn't need an additional drug making her worse...but then, that's my opinion...

good luck. It's a tough decision to make. I personally would ask what it wrong with giving the bond density meds instead of these shots....fosomax is known to build bone density over a period of time with known side effects...why is he not offering these meds?

petal*pusher

I started this "new drug"...Forteo...in March of '07. The Osteoporosis board located right here has been extremely beneficial in helping me understand the pros and cons of this medicine...and I'm truly excited about the possibilities it offers me. In fact, researching Forteo is what brought me to these pages...when I saw the Alzheimer's board...I knew there was comfort to be found here also as my own Mother is 9 years into this horrific disease...FIL also diagnosed 2 years ago...MIL very recently passed from Alzheimer's also!

Side effects of Forteo are minimal or non-existant for most. Benefits I've noticed is stronger nails, very quick healing of external cuts, thicker hair...I sure hope the INSIDE of me is responding as well! The shots were a little intimidating at first, but now easy to do. I would assume your Mom would not be able to give them to herself....right?

Your question has made me think about if I would continue if I were in your Mother's shoes................and why is her Dr. suggesting it for her. I would think that the very real possibility of a broken hip if she falls helped him think this would help her. It's very common for ANY situation to make this disease progress more quickly...a broken hip would surely do this...it happened like that with my Mom.

If your Mother is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's...I would not let him talk me into it. The hoped-for outcome for most of us who (knowingly) take Forteo is for a stronger skeleton to carry us thru our advancing age! (I just turned 60...have lost 4 1/2" in height...surely want to keep working for several more years!) The other major concern would be the cost...$800.00 every 28 days...good thing I have excellent insurance!

Do you have others in your family to help you make this important decision? Hope I helped a little.....Pam

Oasis_rest

Thanks to everyone for the replies. Mother's family doctor is prescribing the bone density medicine. For three weeks I've been giving her Foxamax oral solution and yesterday and today she has had diarrhea. I put a call in to her neurologist to ask him his opinion on bone density drugs since she has the advanced dementia. It is very difficult to deal with side effects of drugs when someone can't tell you when they feel bad.

Deb

sunstateshirley

sunstateshirley

My 96 year old mother who has alzheimers and osteroporosis was prescribed the once a year infusion called RECLAST by her doctor. She had it done in October of 2007 and has experienced no adverse effects.