Regarding donepezil and memantine

Timmyd

DW was prescribed donepezil and memanine upon her diagnosis several years back. My understanding is that this is a pretty common drug regiment for those diagnosed with ALZ. DW is in stage 6 and it is quite the effort to get her to take her pills each day.

My question for those whose PWD used either or both of these drugs. At what point did you decide to stop using them and why? What stage was PWD in when they stopped? How was it decided to stop? Did you use alternative delivery methods such as patches or liquids before deciding to stop?

Sweetwater

My LO was taking both of these drugs. They seemed to slow the progression for a time. He had abdominal surgery and was stage 6 when hospice advised to discontinue the drugs. I felt they had been ineffective for some time.

Quilting brings calm

Mom took Donepezil. She only took the 5mg dose because the 10mg gave her diarrhea. 5mg is not really the therapeutic level. So I don’t really think it was effective. She was into stage 5 when she passed.

Momx3

My DH has taken both, but never at the same time. I feel like the Donepezil 10mg helped the most but he had terrible headaches every day while taking it. The Memantine didn't seem to help at all but it also caused headaches. He hasn't been taking anything for the last 6 months, and there has been a definite decline. I would calculate my husband is stage 5 to mid 5.

BPS

My wife took Donepezil for probably 8 years until she went on hospice. I don't know if it helped, but when I talked to her Dr about stopping he said she should keep taking it because if it was helping she would have a sudden decline and putting her back on it wouldn't bring her back to her previous base line. That was about 4 years ago. Then when she went on hospice they said by that time it probably wasn't helping and recommended stopping. There was no sudden decline for her.