Question:
Alzheimers drugs what is the evidence?

my wife has been taking Aricept and Memantine for years andis, although now in the later stages of the disease, still taking them.I shall continue them. I am sure they are doing little for her now and Ihave been told many times that I am only delaying the inevitable. Alsothat it is like not pulling a feeding tube in a patient with little orno brain function. my philosophy is all that life is anyway isjust delaying the inevitable death. As long as she is concious,comfortable and able to swallow I shall have those medications givendespite the high cost. How much is an existance worth? YMMV but that'smy take on the reports of this nature.

Answer: These problems are so difficult to analyze.

Did the drug do any good? Is it still doing any good?Is it worth the cost?

How are we to know?

Some of the people here report that they have seen cleareffects. I could not tell any good effect of Aricept on eithermy father or my mother-in-law, and did see bad side effectsin my MIL.

I think the best policy may be to observe for yourself.

If the patient has never had the drugs, try them andobserve. If the patient is taking the drugs now, withdrawthem and observe. A number of people have indicated thatwhen they withdrew the drugs and saw a slide in capacity,restoring the drugs restored the capacity.

One of the things I dislike about expensive, proprietarydrugs is that they suck tons of money, and tons of profits,out of families in need and out of the health care systemthat we all pay for with medicare taxes and insurancepremiums.

Providing expensive drugs to people who need them is agood deed. But withdrawing expensive drugs from peoplewho are not benefitting from them is also a good deed.People shouldn't feel guilty about withdrawing drugs fora trial period to see if the patient does just as wellwithout them.