medications

curtis88

Which medicines seem to work best for symptoms of dementia,in your opinion.

toolbeltexpert

Curtis I wish I knew as well. First thing knowing what type of dementia your loved one has can make a huge difference in what meds work and what meds to avoid as they are contradictory to particular types of dementia. Second thing every pwd Is different. I have seen where two people are taking the same meds but totally different doses.

My dw started on depakote which caused her to have a extremely low blood platelets.

Then a switch to zyprexa which she has been on for over a year but not without some side effects. She also started on Lexapro which didn't work well enough so we have been thru a few changes, Prozac, then Buspar which was used as an intermediary drug to go to zoloft which is her current anxiety med 2 weeks now and hoping it might be the one.

Same with pain meds. Tylenol then tramadol which had negative behaviors and now meloxicam.

It almost always trial and error and it takes time. This has been our experience anyway.

Before we started this my dw took zero meds.

Others will chime in.

Stewart

SDianeL

They just put my husband on Risperidone very low dose. They started with 1/2 tab at bedtime. It is supposed to help with agitation, anger and hallucinations. The Geriatric Psychiatrist added 1/2 tab in the morning. Find a good Geriatric Psychiatrist who knows and understands dementia. They know what and how to prescribe based on the type of memory loss.

curtis88

thanks for the suggestions

Jo C.

There are multiple different kinds of dementia; meds for one type may well be contraindicated in another, that is why having an accurate diagnosis for type of dementia is so important. Even meds that are to slow dementia in early days can be contraindicated for some dementias. That happened with my LO. The diagnosis for Alzheimer's was made and Aricept started to hopefully slow the advancement; however, that can be questionable and if it does help, it is usually only for a short time. As it was, my LO got far worse in behaviors - was able to get an appt with a good dementia specialist and turned out that my LO had FTD and not Alz., and the med was contraindicated. Once the med was stopped, things settled a bit.

Also, there are different meds for different needs, one size does not fit all. It is a patient specific, condition specific which must be worked through. If one has a dementia specialist, that is the best approach, sometimes having the primary MD manage the dementia is another choice.

How is your Loved One doing?