ARICEPT Reviews (DONEPEZIL HYDROCHLORIDE)Average Rating: 1.7 (210 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare ARICEPT with similar:
Type: Rx Drug
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Results are sorted by Age oldest to youngest. Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.) |
More on ARICEPT: Reviews Summary | Drug Safety Information
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR ARICEPT | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 1 | Alzheimers | My mum aged 94 was diagnosed with alzheimers in 2007 and was given aricept even though both she and I were not happy about the drug as we had watched a tv programme about its negative effects on patients she took it for approximately five weeks and her personality changed for the worse she became aggressive and afraid to leave the house and got very upset at the day centre which was completely out of character for her. | Mum stopped taking the aricept after 5 weeks and returned to the way she was before taking it.I am very concerned about the side effects of this drug but some of my relations want Mum to go back to taking it so I am immensely grateful to the contributers of this site for highlighting so many of the negative effects of aricept. Mum is now 97 and seems no worse than when she was first diagnosed back in 2007 and I feel sure is alive and well today thanks to stopping taking aricept before it did lasting damage. She has been taking a homeopathic remedy (lycopodium)for the past two years which seems to have stopped her condition from getting any worse. | F | 97 | 35 days 5mg 1X day | 8/13/2010 | 1 | Dementia | Total personality change. Suicidal thoughts. Extreme confusion. | This drug is BAD BAD BAD!!! My grandmother was in an assisted living facility and the facility's doctor prescribed her this drug...and then doubled the dosage two weeks later, all without our knowledge or permission. We knew nothing about her taking it until I got the bill a month later. In the meantime, my grandmother went insane!!! She was always a sweet loving lady who played the organ in her church. With Aricept, she changed into a screaming lunatic!!! She screamed at her room-mate. She dragged all of her belongings down to the lobby and told the staff that her family was picking her up - we knew nothing about it until the staff called us. She talked about going down to the river and throwing herself in. She was a total NUTCASE!!! Everyone in the building saw the change. We were considering putting her in to the Alzheimer wing because she was acting so crazy. Then I get the bill, read up on the drug, had her old doctor cancel the prescription and, within a few days, she was back t | F | 97 | 35 days | 7/9/2008 | 1 | Vascular dementia caused by TIA's | I am submitting this for my mother. My mom is 95 and in a nursing home. She suffers from TIA's or Transient Istemic Attacks which have been described to us as mini strokes. Eventually, she has had so many that she has lost many brain cells and suffers from what is called Vascular Dementia. The first time she was given Aricept, we noticed that she could no longer use the walker, and then after about 30 days became manic so they gave her Haldol (sp). We asked them to take her off both of these and she returned to being able to do the walker and even negotiate stairs and the toilet. The doctor put her back on it without our consent or knowledge and she again became weak and got to the point she could not even lift a fork. I went on-line and discovered that Aricept has even caused death in people with vascular dementia. If you or your elderly parent suffer from TIA's DO NOT allow a doctor to prescribe this. | F | 95 | 30 days | 9/8/2008 | 1 | Father taking it for dementia | Father is 94 After 3 week confusion, imagining things, seeing people, trying to move thigs, leaning to the left side, legs being week. Not resting at all. This drug is bad. This drug is more harm than good. | took him off for 2 days, back to himself. | M | 94 | 3 weeks | 3/27/2009 | 1 | dementia | Difficulty in breathing aggresive behaviour | trying to get nursing home to stop using | F | 94 | 3 years 5mg 1X day | 1/4/2011 | 2 | Dementia | A relative is writing this. muscle pain, increase memory loss, and very unstable can not use the cane very well and forgets where its at, some slur speech. These increase effects started right after start using the drug this past week , | Pay attention to your relative There is no known cure for dementia or related like disease. I suspect the drug has different effects on the older patient. | M | 93 | 6 days | 3/18/2007 | 2 | Alzheimer's | My Mom experienced restless sleep, punctuated by vivid, disturbing dreams - lots of talking in her sleep. No significant improvement in her Alzheimer's symptoms. | After taking Aricept for ~2 years, my Mom went off it and I noticed a definite improvement in her overall level of alertness. It was recently prescribed again after a sudden mental slip in my Mom's overall mental state, and I don't think I'm going to put her back on it. | F | 93 | 2 years | 11/23/2006 | 2 | My father | Delusions: he imagines masses of people walking aound. Then he realizes that it is not real. | Possibly muscle pain and weakness, unstable walk. He did not have these symptoms before Aricept. | M | 93 | 2 years | 7/19/2009 | 1 | mild dementia | 5 mg Aricept was prescribed for one month, and 93-year-old nursing home resident's decline began, but initially not too dramatically. But when dosage was raised to 10 mg, things went downhill fast. Within three weeks was no longer talking, almost entirely stopped eating, lost weight fast, weak, refusing medicines, couldn't recognize family or say names, fell down (luckily no fractures) was in a wheelchair and recommended for hospice care. After witnessing such a sudden death spiral and the only difference in medications being Aricept, family asked doctor to stop Aricept entirely. 10 mg Aricept was stopped after 22 days use (dosage was cut back to 5 mg for four days additional days before complete elimination). Within a week of being off Aricept, thankfully, patient has begun recuperating appetitie, recognizing family members again, asking questions, talking and regaining strength and personality. | Instead of making things better, Aricept made condition much worse and was part and parcel of scary death spiral which hopefully is being reversed in time. Be vary wary of this drug, to say the least. Do not recommend. Stay away from it, if at all possible. | F | 93 | 45 days | 6/19/2009 | 1 | dimentia | My 93 year old mother is in a nursing home and was prescribed Aricept because she was having severe memory loss. After only a few days we started to see a change in her. Before the medication she was happy, peaceful and pleasant with everyone. She loved all her caregivers at the home. She has been taking the medication for about 3 weeks and she is very anxious and this has escalated to being beligerent, angry, confused...she insisted the lady in the room with her was a man. Calls my sister and yells at her. Hates all her caregivers and gives them a hard time. Says she wants to die. The doctors say it is not the medication and that she is very depressed. After reading all your comments I am convinced we were right. This medication is making her crazy! | F | 93 | 3 weeks | 4/28/2009 | 1 | Parkinson's dementia | My 92-year-old mom had Parkinson's dementia and we started her on 5 mg of Aricept, which helped a bit (she talked a lot more, anyway). After a month we increased her to 10 mg and she immediately began having GRAND MAL SEIZURES (8 in 12 hours) and had to go to the hospital to get them under control (because IV anti-seizure drugs would work much more quickly than oral drugs). Long story short, she died 2 weeks later. | DO NOT overlook the less common side-effects of this drug. MY MOM DIED because it caused seizures. She had never had a seizure in her life. | F | 92 | 6 weeks 5 and 10 m 1X day | 10/24/2011 | 1 | BY AGE WITHOUT A REASON | Difficulty breathing, moving and talking, tightness in the chest, confusion, unusual tiredness and sluggishness, irregular heartbeat, muscle weakness, lost of appetite and weight, swelling of the hands. | My mother was recovering from a hip surgery at Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Brooklyn, NY. Her observing doctor at the center had prescribed this drug without any reason or concern. My mother has never suffered from Dementia or any stage of Alzheimer disease. We were completely unaware of the fact she was taking Aricept until all physical and mental changes had appeared and I had researched it on-line. This drug is VERY DANGEROUS and families should be advised on all possible issues. It is 1 week now she is off the medication but we still can't see the improvement in her. | F | 91 | 4 weeks | 10/13/2009 | 2 | Dementia | My father who died in May 2011 took this drug from September 2007 until 6 months before his death, which was due to a broken hip, not his stage 6 Alzheimer's. It was good at 1st but last 3 months before taking him off of it he would have violent outbursts at me and my mother who has Parkinsons. I would CAUTION ALL CARE GIVERS that if your patient becomes violent, take them off this drug. I believe his dementia had advanced so far it was not doing any good anymore. Once off the drug he was calm and compliant, no violent outbursts. | M | 90 | 4 years 1X day | 3/19/2014 | 1 | My husband - mid stage dementia | Became non verbal, dramatically deceased appetite, diarrhea, incontinence, serious overall decline resulting in hospice care | After the drug was discontinued, and it cleared his system, the symptoms resolved as dramatically as they appeared. Seems to me our cultural fear of dying is causing folks to seek false hope. I wouldn't recommend donezipil to anyone. | 90 | 6 weeks 10 1X day | 1/10/2023 | 1 | Memory loss | I'm writing this for my 90 year old mother. She has suffered severe anxiety (sense of "doom"), loss of appetite, very weak, shortness of breath, dizziness, sleeping a lot, muscle ache, stomach soreness. | My mother was given Aricept while in a rehab center after a fall and leg fracture. Mom always has these episodes when in hospitals, etc., of not knowing where she is, getting upset, etc. but always recovers when back home. Don't know why dr. felt she needed this. Was "ok" on 5 mg in rehab ctr but when she got home 3 weeks ago dr. upped it to 10 mg. She started with MAJOR anxiety (woke up during middle of night with fear and shaking). I took it in my own hands and cut her down to 5 mg. 3 days ago. Anxiety stopped immediately! BUT...she is still very weak and short of breath and fills up after eating practically nothing! After reading here how others are also suffering same things, I think she needs to be OFF it NOW! Starting tomorrow we'll be stopping it and getting Mom back to herself! I hope it's not too late. This is a NASTY drug!!! | F | 90 | 45 days 10 mg 1X day | 4/7/2010 | 1 | some memory loss | depression, nausea, loss of appetite, fuzzy head | My mother was prescribed aricept because she was experiencing some memory loss. Her whole personality changed and she spoke of wanting to die. She had no appetite and lost her enjoyment of life. After several months on aricept she was struck with macular degeneration and has lost her eyesight except for peripherally. I haven't found any links between aricept and macular degeneration but I am wondering if anyone else has experienced that. My sisters and I finally demanded that she be taken off of aricept and she became her old self again except for her vision loss, which remains. | F | 90 | 4 months 5-10mg 1X day | 5/23/2010 | 1 | Alzheimer's Disease | fainting, starvation, bedridden, incontinance, confusion, depression, aggitation, | Diagnosed with Alzheimers, my aunt began Aricept 5mg. After two weeks on this drug she fainted and was eating less. Once admitted to hospital they found her sodium to be low. She was there one week and became completely bedridden, incontinent, extrememly confused, and very depressed. Sent to rehab to get her strength back we realized our neighbor who was taking Aricept 10mg had lost 85 pounds very quickly and was declining in health also. We demanded she be taken off Aricept immediately which for some reason didn't happen for another week or so. By then the damage was done. She lost 15 pounds, refused to eat more than one bite of food at each meal, refused to get out of bed, repeated things over and over, was rude to all who tried to help, became incontinant, had bizarre behavior like peeing in her denture cup or in dixie cups left on her bedside table. She had zero strength. Near death we began to gather family and get things in order. Slowly slowly she began to improve. Learning to walk has been a huge struggle, she is eating great now, seems to be back to her old self other than still depressed alot at night. Most of which is sundowners. I have no doubt this drug is DANGEROUS AND I WOULD NEVER EVER EVER give it to anyone!!!! | F | 90 | 2 weeks | 6/2/2009 | 1 | Slight dementia | Babbling, severe memory loss, couldn't string two sentences together whereas she was coherent the day before. | This medication was given to my 90 year old mother in the hospital for memory loss, which, in a five minute interview the neurologist diagnosed as dementia. Within 24 hours she was babbling like a baby and could not string 2 sentences together. I ordered her off of it immediately. | F | 90 | 1 days | 1/26/2008 | 1 | mixed dimentia | Frequent urination, fecal incontinence, excessive runny nose, fatique, more confusion, spike in blood pressure, muscle weakness. | My mother is 90 and I am guessing we have mixed dimentia ..alzheimers and some recent small stroke activity prior to november.Extreme changes in her behavior lead us to believe there was a stroke at that time which left her with excessive confusion.I have been caregiving 24 hrs a day since november and able to watch her every move. Came off aricept 2 weeks ago and has improved tremendously in regard to side effects,,,still has fecal incontinence but not as frequent..hoping this symptom will subside. Her blood pressure on aricept was 188/103. Has returned to normal after 1 week off of aricept. Be very attentive to side effects on this drug.May be good for some but not mom. So watch it carefully...be aware of what is going on.. | F | 90 | 4 days | 1/30/2008 | 1 | dementia | hallucinations, confusion, frantic/anxious, "my brain is all messed up!", doesn't recognize/remember daughter(s)or their name(s) | Replying for our mother. Claims to speak w/deceased siblings & mother. Sees strange things (eg, people in the tree of the house next door; claims "people" move/take her things,'took the TV from her room' (she's never had one in her room). Thinks things happen but when explained to her they did not she still refuses to believe these things did not happen (this only occured only after 4 doses). She will not be receiving any further doses! | F | 90 | 4 days | 2/12/2009 |
ARICEPT (DONEPEZIL HYDROCHLORIDE): Donepezil is used to treat confusion (dementia) related to Alzheimer's disease. It does not cure Alzheimer's disease, but it may improve memory, awareness, and the ability to function. This medication is an enzyme blocker that works by restoring the balance of natural substances (neurotransmitters) in the brain. FDA Approval Date: 1996-11-25 (Sources: U.S. Centers for Medicare Services, FDA)