memantine confusion

There is a site called RxISK which lists all the reported side effects of prescription medicines. It is worth looking for.

Confusional state, Dizziness Fall Gait disturbance Somnolence are all listed as having been reported regularly.

In other posts in this group I have pointed to a protocol that has been shown to improve cognitive function which may improve matters.

Correcting Vitamin D deficiency status is associated with fewer falls. 

I have just removed my husband from a Care Home where he has been for the past 15 months...He had been taken into a psychiatric ward for the six months previous to that.During that period I have no idea what they did with him, apart from put him on several drugs and label him aggressive, a label I find hard to accept.

After being totally neglected in a Care Home, for which he paid over three thousand pounds per month, I removed him and took him back to live with me. We established quite quickly that memantine was the problem. He had become a total zombie, unable to as much as lift his foot for me to put his sock on....Two weeks later, he can wash, dry and dress himself,,,,He is in the latter staged of dementia, and nothing can take away from that. However, he has some quality of life back....I feel very angry that none of the professionals has monitored this dangerous drug properly.

 

Memantine is prescribed to improve memory, attention, reason, language and the ability to perform simple tasks. The most common adverse events reported in patients taking Memantine were confusion, dizziness and falls, flu-like symptoms and agitation. Since your mother is experiencing the confusion while taking Memantine, talk with your doctor, he may adjust the dose of the drug so that severity of the sides get reduce. Several studies conducted on Memantine and it shows Memantine use in combination with Donepezil is more effective than single drug treatment. Certain foods affect the way your body eliminates Memantine and cause an increase unwanted side effects. Talk to your doctor about what food should be avoided.

My Wife has suffered from Alzhiemers now for just over 5 years We tried Aricept waste of time took her of it. Tried Mementine 5mg made her worse. took her of it.

I now refuse to give her any drugs, other than half mg of Lorazepam to calm her down. I must state here that my wife as suffered from Epilesy since she was 18 years old, been on 100mg of Phenytoin twice daily all her life she is now 80 years old

Hi, There are currently no FDA approved drug to cure or even slow down the progression of alzheimer. The approved drugs are currently of two types cholinesterase inhibitors like (Aricept, Exelon, Razadyne, Cognex, Donepezil) and Memantine (Namenda), that only aim to lower the symptoms. However, both have severe side effects, death is a listed side effects of both types. Me and mom talked through these and decided against them. In fact, I would say, if your neurologist prescribes any of these, then he is thinking, the patient is going to die anyway and these will give some relief (maybe or maybe not). I would go to a doctor that is more knowledgable and more caring, that is bold enough to sit and talk with you about other options, latest studies etc. You can stop taking that drug. To help you, here are the options that are shown to really slow down alzheimer 1. physical training (the more vigorous the better, but a patient may have lesser stability due to brain deficits, be careful not to fall) daily walk may not be enough, try yoga !! 2. nutrition (there are many don't eat and many eat these (away with all sugar, away with all gluten, away with all processed food), away with all unhealthy oil (most of all oils you know) away with red meat, away with dairy products especially cheese, to name a few..  eat a lot raw food, vegetables, healthy oils (flax, fish, coconut), fish, nuts, berries.. .3. good spirit, start meditating every day, the most correlation good spirit is with social interaction, being alone and depressed are both killers when you have dimentia, plan social activities for your loved one every day, it can be a senior club, training hours, meeting family, friends, any hobby, play music 4. mental training, buy toys, puzzles, play cards, do arithmetics, cross words, suduko, computer games 5. supplements, try all of these, all have at some study shown positive effect. remember a positive effect is less decline, high dose of vitamin b's, folic acids, and vitamin b12, also vitamin d, vitamin c, vitamin e (do not overdose vitamin e as overdosage can be lethal), cinnamon bark, turmeric, phosphatidylserine, cdp choline, peptones (memoprove), astaxantin, alpha lipoic acid. Everwhere I read has reported good tolerance of the above. you can also try the following that may give some side effects: Some kind of blood thinner is good to prevent strokes, brain health and heart health are related but it must be a decision, blood thinner have risks, the least invasive one is probably low dose aspirin (acetalecyl acid). there are also some reports they may actually speed the detoriation once dimentia ha progressed. Ginko biloba is another natural supplement, which is said to milden symptoms, but has some side effects. Letäs hope they make progress, there are several studies now, one is simply transferring plasma from young people, others are investigating genetics, several genes has been associated with alz, and it seems the body reacts to the medicine differently based on these genes, also some new promising drugs are being tested on people, Bexarotene, a cancer medicine with severe side effects is already FDA approved and if it proves helpful to clear brain from amyloid proteins, it may be the first approved drug actually slowing down the alz. Biogen has numerous tests on humans, of which aducanumab seems to come farthest with proven slowing down and without severe side effects.

 

Hi Ted,

sorry i could not find your suggestion for [color=#0f2e4c]protocol to improve cognitive function[/color][color=#0f2e4c] ,pl can you share a link.Thanks[/color]

Some people respond very badly to memantine. Others seem to do well on it. The reality is that no drug will stop the progression of dementia.

The brain damage which dementia causes is vastly different from patient to patient. I think that is why all the meds given to people with dementia have such massively different effects.

If you believe that your mother is reacting badly to memantine, stop giving it!

Discuss it with your doctor, but I have found that many docs are keen to try memantine out. It was only licensed recently and is still really in its early stages.