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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Should Patient Of Dementia Be Taken Off Namenda Due To Side Effects?

My mom is 87 has moderate dementia and has been given 5mg of Namenda twice daily. Now they have increased to 20mg. She has is now experiencing the following since increase: itching, stupor, vomiting, confusion,x back pain seeing, hearing things that are not there, anxiety, indigestion.....her quality of life has gone down hill within a week of taking increased dosage. I am thinking of taking her off this med because she is not the same Mom. Is it worth sticking it out or giving her some peace as she knows it?
posted on Sun, 9 Feb 2014
Twitter Sun, 9 Feb 2014 Answered on
Twitter Tue, 11 Feb 2014 Last reviewed on
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Psychiatrist,  's  Response
Greetings !

Well if a drug is causing more dis-benefits than the benefits it is expected to deliver then you shall bring the drug off and the same strategy is applied to Namenda ( memantine hcl) ad anyways namenda is an add on assisting drug for dementia while Aricept ( generic name -- donepezil ) is the chief drug that is used in dementia cases, so you may use that instead and bring her off memantine aka namenda

I hope this helps.

Regards
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Should Patient Of Dementia Be Taken Off Namenda Due To Side Effects?

Greetings ! Well if a drug is causing more dis-benefits than the benefits it is expected to deliver then you shall bring the drug off and the same strategy is applied to Namenda ( memantine hcl) ad anyways namenda is an add on assisting drug for dementia while Aricept ( generic name -- donepezil ) is the chief drug that is used in dementia cases, so you may use that instead and bring her off memantine aka namenda I hope this helps. Regards