Aricept and depression

Sagelake123

My mom is 84 and was prescribed Aricept last month (July). Her and my dad live in a independent/assisted living facility. They moved in last February. Mom was doing fairly well when they moved in but has declined kind of rapidly over the last few months. Most recently she’s gotten very depressed and I’m wondering if the Aricept could be contributing to her depression. Has anyone else seen this happen with their loved one?

Stuck in the middle

DW is 74 and has been on Aricept for 5 years with no side effects.

Emily 123

I believe it can be a less common side effect. Maybe discuss it with her physician? It takes about a month I think for it to really be effective, so the timing might be right, if you think there's a link.  There are quite a few threads about it here, you may want to hunt.     

Even something like a move to a new environment can present a lot of challenges for someone without much short-term memory.   Her focus may be on trying to stay on top of all the unfamiliar things and it's not uncommon to see disengagement if people are struggling to process new information, conversations, etc.,  possibly presenting as apathy.  Something I noticed with my mom--her hearing became very labile--worked fine and we could have conversations even with me facing away from her some days, but on her more 'Alzheimer-y' days, when she was frazzled or disengaged,  I finally figured out that I had to face her, speak slowly, and we would sometimes use a hearing amplifier. good luck!