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 Date added. 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 |
| 2 | Mild Alzheimer's w/ memory loss. | My 67-year-old husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's on PET/CT scan. He was prescribed 5 mg. Aricept. After only 4 days, he developed depression, agitation, nervousness, diarrhea, nightmares w/ talking in sleep and loss of appetite. He had been doing well without these symptoms and only very mild short-term memory loss. His primary-care doctor said that if the side effects of Aricept were making him so upset and unable to eat normally that he should discontinue it immediately. We have just discontinued it and are praying that he returns to his "old self" with just the mild memory loss. | Our physician said Aricept is NOT for everyone and all you can do is try it and see if it works for you. His opinion was that if didn't work for you or you didn't like and couldn't tolerate the side effects that you should stop it immediately and dispose of it. We have. This Aricept prescription and resultant side effects occurred in July 2009. | M | 67 | 4 days | 8/1/2009 | 1 | Mild Alzheimers | Totally out of my mind, Kept looking for my deceased Mother and Father, confusion, Thought I was going crazy, couldn't think clearly, anxiety, hallucinaltions, personality change. | I am writing this for my 85yr old mother. She had just taken it for 2 days and it totally changed her personality...it's like she was in a fog and we were so scared. She kept looking for her mother and father. Her memory is not great but after taking this for just 2 days her memory was gone...at this rate I am sure she would not be with us for much longer. She is no longer taking this drug. It should be taken off of the market. Stay away from this drug. | F | 85 | 2 days | 7/25/2009 | 1 | memory loss - mild confusion | Loss of affect, personality disorders, deep drepressive spells. Loss of ability to turn on the TV and use most appliances. Loss of sense of smell. Incontenence. Diarrhea. Major loss of appetite. Lost Weight from 130 to 105, in three months lost all desire to eat now frail and unstable, & need a walker. Loss of joy and ability to have hope for the future. After taking Aricept I felt impending doom. I was just waiting to die. Felt horrible. It worsened my memory. Took away my ability to take care of myself. It is the worst drug ever taken in 81 years. Thank God I got off it after three months despite objections from Doctor that "You can't go back on it". I NEVER want to go back on it. My kids say I have improved significantly in the 2+ weeks since I stopped after 3 months on. It was the worst three months of my life. I can't explain how subtley it creeps up on your mind and steals your higher ability to think of feel. I was a walking dead. My kids will attest. I | Additional studies need to be done on the severe side effects I experienced. It was nearly fatal. I wanted to die. Thank God my daughter took it away. She read all the warnings. My doctor recommended keeping me on it, but thank God my daughter has a stron spirit. She saved me and I have to write this in response to getting my life back. Even if I only have one day. I now have hope in the morning when I pray. On Aricept, I couldn't remember to pray. I got so confused and angry that I prayed evey day that an angel of mercy would come and take me away from my confusion and frustration. I wouldn't have lived more than a few more weeks on Aricept. I know that. I am strong and I can face this memory loss by writing things down and using a calendar. On Aricept I couldn't remember what to write. I was as good as a walking dead person. I give thanks we got off that evil drug. Be warned. It can be a wicked drug. | F | 82 | 100 days | 7/24/2009 | 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 | Short Term memory imparement | No problem with the 5mg sample but my first prescription was for 10mg. I suffered extreme stomach burning which felt somewhat like "acid stomach" but much more painful. I stopped after taking 2 pills. | F | 79 | 32 days | 7/7/2009 | 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 | Dr. prescribed | I have awful nausea and want to sleep all the time. | I am in a research study and have slipped somewhat in recent testing. They referred me to my Dr. and he has prescribed 5 mg. of Aricept. Taking it for 2 weeks and have awful nausea and want to sleep all the time. I live alone and still active and drive. I want to continue with my life as it is. I will discontinue taking Aricept. If my family or myself find adverse problems with me living alone, then we will have to deal with it. I can't stand the nausea. | F | 82 | 2 weeks | 6/16/2009 | 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 | Mom took 5 mg aricpet | Nausea, dizzyness, walking off balance, extremely tired,could not eat good substantial meals,then ate next to nothing for a week. Doc kept saying the side effects would go away but did not. Mom just slept and kept asking what is happenning to my memory,am I nuts. She also had horrible nightmares and would not go the the Senior Day Care as she had been doing for 3 days a week for at least 9 months. | My Mom diagnosed with Dementia has been on Namenda for about 2 yrs which has been helpful. Doc decided to add 5 MG of Aricept and after 16 days turned out to be disaster. I planned to have live-in care giver but because of her decline from the aricept we placed her in assisted living for her to recoop. I hope the aricept did not trigger permanent decline. I am soooo sad to see the change. I am praying she at least gets nback to the way she was when she was just on the Namenda. | F | 85 | 16 days | 5/30/2009 | 1 | my mother for alzheimers | Filling this out for my deceased mother, She died of starvation. | It wasnt until after she died that I found out about this side effect. Aricept lists it as "possible loss of appetite". In actual fact patients starve themselves to death while taking it. I know of two other people this happened to. There is research showing increasing rates of suicide among the elderly, preferred method of suicide according to this research is starving themselves to death. I would like to know how many of these "suicides" were on aricept. It is a very dangerous drug and should not be given to anyone. | F | 89 | 90 days | 5/26/2009 | 1 | Vascular dementia | My mother suffered a series of vivid dreams, hallucinations and confusion after just 3 days at 5mg. | Perhaps the delusions would have lessened with time and some benefit been derived. But the initial experience was so upsetting that her doctor and I agreed to stop this meds immediately and permanently. | F | 85 | 3 days | 5/25/2009 | 1 | dementia | in 2 weeks started having insomnia and panic attacks. Had 1 faiting spell. | Monitor side effects very closely | M | 86 | 2 weeks | 5/3/2009 | 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 | My mom for early Alzheimers | After 2 doses - she began to become very confused. I took her to the emergency room at the advice of her doctor. My brother and I watched as over a 4 hour period she basically traveled into full blown dimentia - she didn't know my children's names - who she lives with - eventially getting to a point where she didn't know where she lived (with me for 8 months), what year it was, or what size she was ( she said "8", which would have been right 2 years prior, but now she is a size 2) Nothing that was said to me as the medicine was prescibed would ever have indicated this kind of reaction. The emergency room staff ran every test imaginable. There was nothing that could account for the sudden and serious memory loss except the introduction of aricept. 24 hours later - having skipped this morning's dose, I am slowly getting my mother back - this was very frightening and I think it should be listed as a posslible - though perhaps rare - side effect. | F | 78 | 2 days | 4/25/2009 | 4 | Mother has Alzheimer's Disease | Occasional dizziness and 'thick head'in the first few weeks of taking it. | We've had a very difficult few months since Mum stopped being able to cope living alone. Short-term memory gone; various cognitive and perceptual confusions; very insecure and anxious, with panic attacks etc. Alzheimer's eventually diagnosed and Aricept prescribed. I had a lot of misgivings and concerns about her starting it after reading other people's reports and side effects on this and other sites. However so far, after 2 months, the improvement has been fantastic! I noticed an almost immediate improvement starting in some memory function after 2-3 days on the 5mgs dose, and now after the first month on the 10mgs dose, further improvement again, beyond my best hopes; Mum is managing at home again, with carer visits; remembering much more information and events etc, more reliable congitive functioning in all ways, and best of all, her anxiety state has gone, and she is confidently Spring cleaning after being able to do/initiate very little just a month or so ago! Possibly current energy and activity is a bit 'over the top' relative to Mum's 'normal', and of course we don't know for sure what the coming weeks and moths will bring. But for now, I'm delighted with Aricept. I clearly doesn't help everyone, but it certainly helps some, so don't rule it out prematurely. Good luck! | F | 83 | 9 weeks | 4/20/2009 | 1 | Alzheimer's | My mother was diagnosed with Alheimer's soon after a poor recovery from knee replacement surgery. The diagnosis was early stage and mild and immediately put on Aricept. In my opinion, that's when the decline began rapidly. My mother died last August after a two week severe decline. Sleeping most of 24 hrs of a day. Believing that dehydration was making her so sick in the last week, she was taken to the ER. She had developed ulcers of the esophagus and seriously in the stomach. She had never had any ulcer or stomach problems in her life. She developed sepsis and died. I strongly believe that the side effect of ulcers was not monitered closely. Beware. If you are on this drug or if you are family of a patient please, please have side effect checked. | F | | 4/20/2009 | 2 | Mother has dementia | Symptoms of memory loss improved at first (maybe) but noticeably worsened after 10 mos of daily use | Accidentally ran out and now seems much better Will see how long this lasts | F | 84 | 12 months | 4/13/2009 | 1 | dimentia | lethargic, loss of appetite, depression, | My mom was diagnosed with dimentia in December 2008. Dr. put her on Aricept. In February, she couldn't seem to get out of bed or stay awake for very long. Went to hospital twice to find out what was wrong, everything was fine, although they were quite concerned and kept running tests. By March, she was sleeping most of the day, when awake she would just lay on couch hoping to die. Had a deathly gray pallor and we were not sure she was going to make it very long. Found this site and decided it wouldn't hurt to take her off and see how she did. Within 3 days she was on the road to recovery, alert, awake and rearing to go. | F | 74 | 3 months | 4/5/2009 | 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 | 5 | Slowly dreaming less and less and came to the point that I could not remember if I had any dreams at all. I did not notice any extensive memory loss although my wife was always making remarks about my memory. | My family has had several cases of Alzheimer, including my father (d. age 80) 2 first cousins (d. age 80, d. age 63) 2 first cousins suffering with Alzheimer (age 79 and age 83). I mentioned my symptoms to my doctor and asked about Aricept. He said he did not believe it would harm me to try Aricept, that has been 4 years now. No side effects. Dreams returned and are very vivid and very detailed. I do retain memories of the dreams. I am very active mentally. I maintain 3 Internet Web Sites and do extensive Genealogy research. Have not noticed any more extensive losses of memory, no more than any other acquaintances of my age. | M | 73 | 4 years | 3/24/2009 |