Paranoia/Delusions While On Donezepil and Now Memantine?

nancym97

Hi, all,

Long story short, my mom took Donezepil and Sertraline for about a month earlier this year. Her cognitive abilities improved, and we were psyched. And then…she started having paranoia and delusions, nightmares, and something like a psychotic break happened.

Her doctors didn't think that Donezepil was the cause, but we took her off that and the Sertraline. They also started her on Seroquel at the same time. She slowly improved and stopped having delusions/nightmares/paranoia.

A few months later, here we are and her neurologist started her on memantine. We haven't noticed any difference in cognitive abilities yet. And the other day, she started acting paranoid again and is stuck on a delusion. The neurologist had said that memantine is a different type of drug than donezepil, and she considered it very "safe."

Has anyone else had this experience with memantine? I'm calling her neurologist today to tell them about the paranoia/delusions…I do not want her to end up in the psych ward at the hospital again! I don't know if it's the med or if she is just plain having paranoia and delusions now. But the timing seems coincidental as she started the memantine a few weeks ago. Thanks.

mabelgirl

my mother takes all three of those drugs donezepil, memantine and seroquel. Prior to that she had been paranoid and was hallucinating to the point I thought she’d have a psychotic break. It took awhile but things seemed to improve. She is still delusional and paranoid but not to the extreme she was. I personally don’t think any drug is going to eliminate it totally as much of the behavior I think is just her trying to make sense of the world with all these missing pieces of information. I don’t want my mom zombied out so as long as she is not physically combative or harming anyone, I just let her be and try to redirect. Prayers for peace.

nancym97

Thanks for sharing; this is helpful to hear. I am so afraid of her having another psychotic break…ugh.

dancsfo

A doctor suggested titrating donezepil dosage, and I think increasing the dosage on a lower and slower rate may be good, as opposed to increasing too quickly, then pulling back. I found one article on that, albeit from 2013.

This article mentioned 2.5 mg to 5 mg to 7.5 mg to 10 mg daily on a monthly titration schedule. It was also a post-breakfast dose which differs from a bedtime dose my PWD's doctor prescribed which started at 5 mg. My concern with a post-breakfast dose is dealing with potential dizziness when awake. Does anyone have experience with an alternative dosage time?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6082352/