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which combination of therapy would you recommend nameda with exelon or namenda with aricept? the literature states that exelong is for moderate alzheimer's whereas the aricept is for severe. help.

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I would recommend having a specialist in dementia that you have confidence in, and then taking his or her recommendation.

I'm not sure what literature you looked at, but Aricept is often the first drug prescribed in dementia, and my understanding is that it is most effective in the early stages.

The specialist we see feels VERY strongly that only one drug should be prescribed at a time. He started with Aricept. After that was well established and it was clear that my husband tolerated it well and it was effective, he added other drugs for other symptoms, one by one. So I would not be comfortable with any two drugs started together. If they are not effective or if there are side effects, how will you know which drug is responsible?
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When mom was first diagnosed with AD the Dr. put her on Aricept. Within 3 days she had done a 180 as far as the memory problems we had noticed. (I really have no time line on any of this info) As AD progressed the Dr. put her on Nemenda. I didn't notice much of a difference in her but continued meds. After awhile she was put on Aricept 23mg. Once again I noticed a great improvement in her mental statis. Aricept 23mg is very expensive so Dr. wrote rx for generic Aricept 10mg, 2 pills once a day. It worked just as good and was alot cheaper. Good luck on what ever you decide to do! :-)
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My Dad was prescribed Aricept to begin with. He had strong reactions and side-effects to it that continued the entire time he took it, so his doctor switched him to Namenda. Same thing...terrible side-effects, he couldn't tolerate it. He was then switched to Stalevo, which his more of a Parkinson's medication. Several months after he began taking it, he developed horrible diarrhea. He had it every day, soiling his clothing and bed clothes. This went on for about a month and a half. It was terrible on both him and my Mom. Since he'd been on the medication for a period, we didn't associate it with the Stalevo. I began looking online and found that severe diarrhea was indeed a side effect. We stopped Stalevo, and the diarrhea stopped. Dad is now on the Exelon patch, Seroquel and Carbidopa/Levodopa. I don't know that any are really helping him anymore. I've read that most Alzheimer's meds are effective up to only about 18 months. Just be sure to talk to your neurologist and watch for side-effects.
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thank you every one for your experiences...will check out aricept thanks again
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My mom has dementia. She started on aricept and 3 months later dr added namenda. I saw no difference. Everyone is different so keep trying and working with dr. My mom stopped all drugs 6 wks ago because no one is there to monitor. Amazingly she seems better and sharper but I think that is temporary as she stil has confusion on some things. My fil had side effects with aricept but has been on exelon patch with good results for some time. His memory is stable for now and not worsening.
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