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Is anyone taking Aricept (donepezil) for PD related dementia?
My neuro put me on donepezil to treat short term memory issues. In addition I take carbidopa/levodopa, rasagiline, and amantadine for PD symptoms. The donepezil seemed okay for a few days, then I started feeling extended off times, until after eight days of taking the stuff it felt like my PD meds weren’t working at all. Tremor and bradykinesia were well controlled until I started donepezil. Now I experience bradykinesia most of the waking hours (and more intensely than before), tremor several times a day and have only slept about two hours a night the past three nights. In addition I have added new symptoms: constant muscle pain and stiffness, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Has anyone had a similar experience? If so, did you just go off the stuff, adjust your PD meds, or find an alternative?
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2 Replies
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Hello, my husband is 72, diagnosed with PD in mid-2018, on Sinemet 100/25 5x a day, ER version at night and recently began Aricept/Donezipil in the am – 1/2 pill to begin for a few weeks and then he will go to whole pill in a few days.
Amantadine made him feel “weird” paranoid, like his wasn’t “home” and when he got off that Amantadine in July, he had hallucinations – well, that’s when they began with his withdrawals.
He also had some undiagnosed orthostatic hypotensions and lots of fall.
He likely has LBD – noticeably since July.
Aricept / Donezipil, he reports, helps him with hallucinations and lucidity. It’s mild but noticeable. It is helping him with cognition.
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I understand, but someone here can correct me if I am wrong, that Rasagiline increases the levels of dopamine in the brain as does Amantadine. If you have lewy bodies, more dopamine is not necessarily a good thing, not a doctor but a reader and I may be wrong!
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