ARICEPT Reviews (DONEPEZIL HYDROCHLORIDE)

Average Rating: 1.7 (210 Ratings)

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 ALZHEIMER-TYPE DEMENTIA

 Type: Rx Drug

  

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)

  

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Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.)
5=HIGH (this medicine cured me or helped me a great deal.)

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RATING  REASONSIDE EFFECTS FOR ARICEPTCOMMENTSSEXAGEDURATION/
DOSAGE
DATE ADDED
 
 1  dementia lethargy, disoriented, dehydration,mental confusion worsen,depression,always complaining of not feeling good, legs hurt, stomach problems, difficulty walking, a loss of balance, leaning to side or backwards, difficulty swallowing My mother is 79 years old and since she has been on this medication she sleeps all the time, she is more confused,depressed. Her legs hurt she has problems walking and leans to one side or backwards. She falls a lot. She recently had back surgey and is in a nursing home for rehab. She was getting worse instead of better. I decided to go online and check out side effects of aricept when I found this page. I could not believe how many people were having the same side effects as my mother. She is being whinned off this awful drug. This should be taken off the market. This is an awful drug. Don't let your love ones take this medication. F 79 1 years
3/24/2009
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 5  For short term memory None My Doctor precribed Aricept when I mentioned short term memory problems. It is wonderful, my memory is much better and I really feel like my old self. My anxiety is much lower, balance is better, can recall many memories that I thought were lost. Am enjoying life again. F 72 4 months
2/21/2009
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 1  Dementia Frequent diarrhea,lethargy,disorientation,dehydration, and hypopthermia Hi,Am writing for my elderly/frail mother,who's experienced a declining prognosis for dementia since April-2008. Her fam. GP immed. prescribed Aricept,w/o considering her age/frailness.The latter also due to chronic diarrhea and IBS. Soon after starting Aricept,she lost more weight,no desire to eat/drink,and difficulty swallowing. Wife/I have been home-caring my mother and closely documenting all changes since June-2008. Eventually,she had to be fed, couldn't walk (even w. assist),incontinence reaching unbearable levels. Mom was hosp. after Xmas-2008 for hypothermia (body temp. only 91 F),irreg. heartbeat, low BP, etc. She got a pacemaker and then rallied a short time,entering rehab. for 3 wks. On Feb-1-2009, same sequence again commenced. Mother seemed to be at death's door, the hosp,arranging Hospice Care upon arr. home. A staff doctor at the hosp. stopped adm. Aricept after noting the hypothermia. Two weeks later, my mother is chatting normally,full appetite returned,cognizant again F 87 9 months
2/19/2009
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 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
 1  dementia Hallucinations, intense confusion, frantic anxiety, "my brain isn't working" I'm writing this for my mother who experienced these symptoms after 2 weeks on 5mg and 3 weeks on 10mg. The neurologist who had prescribed aricept(after a 15 minute visit with my mom) initially couldn't be bothered with discussing the possibility of my mother's strange behavior being related to the med.His nurse relayed my concerns and his subsequent message back was, "I don't treat those symptoms, take her to a psychiatrist." When I mentioned the problem to a pharmacist, she immediately recognized my mother's aberrant behavior as a possible side effect of aricept and printed up 3 pages of a monograph listing these symptoms. We took my mother off this medicine and she has, in several days, calmed down considerably. F 89 35 days
1/26/2009
 3  vascular dementia nausea, vomiting writing for my father. can't tell if it's helped at all, but it may have made him manic - it's like he's unfiltered, he talks about people inappropriately within earshot, he propositions waitresses for sex, hard to tell - he's always been a jerk and overt. We thought it would HELP, but he won't bathe, insists he can drive, his brand new van has dents in every panel. very frustrated that the need for aricept (and now Haldol, since dad says he's going to load up and take a trip up north with record snow storms everywhere) spark with the physicians to PULL his drivers license. People with other issues - seizures can't drive - so why can people on aricept and haldol??? F 45 100 days
1/16/2009
 1  memory loss I'm writing for my Mom who died 3 weeks ago. At age 89 she suddenly developed memory loss and dementia. At first the doctor's assumed she'd had multiple infarcts because she had fallen. She was given language therapy. Two months before her death, she fell again and was rushed to the hospital. She showed no signs of acute stroke and was physically healthy in every way. They sent her home with Aricept for her "confusion." And resperidone for her delirium. She turned into a vegetable in 2 weeks - sleeping 20 hours a day, unable to get out of bed or walk, unable to talk except in very few words. Constant diarrhea. We had just decided to take her off her medications when this happened. I don't think anyone in their 80s should be given this drug. I would have rather had my Mom confused and alive. F 89 40 days
1/15/2009
 1  Dementia My Mother has been on this med for 3 months now, and she has turned into a zombie !!! we thought it was the dementia pulling her down, but there were too many things happening to her too fast to simply blame it on the dementia. Couldn't walk without holding onto someone,,muscle aches, sleeping all of the time even at the dinner table,headaches,weak,depression, paranoid, incontinence and is now wearing depends, Too Much Too Fast. Everyone is concerned. We took my mother off of this Aricept 2 days ago, and we are just hoping that we get part of her back... F 80 3 months
1/9/2009
 1  dementia I am writting this about my Dad..He has been on ARICEPT for approx. 3-4 months..He has become like a vegetable..total incontinence..cannot walk at all (now in wheelchair)no conversation, muscle aches..lays in bed all day..an exertion..can't catch his breathe..i have instucted his aide to STOP..this has been 5 days ago..i am praying my Dad gets better..to see him like this is so heartbreaking! I do not think this drug is for older people..maybe somebody in their 50's ..60's......i think the drug is BAD..and should be taken off the market!!!! M 86 3 months
12/23/2008
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 1  dementia This is referring to my 89 year old aunt in a nursing home. She was put on aricept to help her memory. IT IS A HORRIBLE DRUG!!!! Shortly after she began taking it, she started having nightmares, hallucinations, difficulty walking and thought she was losing her mind. She was anxious, parnoid, depressed and nasty! We had to INSIST the aricept be discontinued. Why can't we just accept that old people forget things? Modern medicine tries to make people young again and many times the cure is worse than the ailment. After fighting with the staff, my aunt stopped taking aricept and returned to being a pleasant, secure, old lady. F 89 30 days
12/19/2008
 1  Dementia nightmares, daytime hallucinations My Mom has been on this drug for 5 monthes. Since that time, she began to see strange people in her home doing all kinds of things to her house, hears noises and believes truly people are wallpapering her room, painting and just doing odd things around her house. She sees scary people and is almost immobilzed with fear at times because of what she believes she sees and hears. F 89 5 months
12/18/2008
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 1  slight memory loss Hallucinations, fainting, extreme headaches My grandmother was given this by her doctor to help with memory loss. She began to have strange hallucinations while awake. She would see trees and a man walking around that she did not know. Also she started having strange vivid dreams. She had a fainting spell and severe headaches. She only took it about five days but stopped because the discomfort was too much. F 80 5 days
11/19/2008
 3  Memory Loss - Chiropractic Stoke My mom (83)is trying Aricept and I noticed a slight improvement in her alertness and memory in about 3 weeks. She has bad macular degeneration and she started talking about "seeing" strange things like lots of people with bulby noses all dressed alike (she knew they weren't there but couldn't get it out of her head.) She also has been tossing and turning and talking in her sleep. No diarrhea but maybe a little loss of appetite. Always so sweet but gets a little agitated at times lately. I am halfway wanting her to try to keep using it for awhile but after reading all this not so sure. She does seem better but also is having mild side affects I think. She is very concerned (anxious) for lack of a better word what I started calling hallucinations. She isn't confused or out of her mind as she knows it isn't real but afraid she is going to see it again. She is quite frightened. Does this sound familiar to anyone? The doctor wants to add another prescription as a combina F 64 3 weeks
11/1/2008
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 1  Memory loss Doctor prescribed 10 mg and take 1/2 pill at dinner time.Wife is a happy person who never had stomach troubles. After first day of medicine she looked angry and depressed.After the second day of medicine,she looked awful and informed me she had nauseas, vomiting and bad problems with stomach functioning. I had pleaded her doctor for a medicine to help slow down her memory loss. Dr. prescribed Aricept 10 mg pills The result was BAD..BAD BAD This medicine should not be on the market as it is dangerous and harmful. I stopped it, and prefer to deal with wife weak memory, but healthy of spirit and happy. Medicine is very expensive and it really hurt my pocket. I had to throw away 98% of medicine. I don't blame her doctor but the Food and Drug Admin. As a scientific person I believe it should be a process to develop a medicine for memory loss which should be mild with minimum side effects on humans health and well being. F 85 2 days
9/20/2008
 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
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 5  Gradual memory impairment No side effects, except after about three days a litte insomnia, but that passed after three more days and now sleep is pretty normal, and even more productive for organizing experiences from the previous day. It's a miracle product. The process of regaining my memory of childhood details is miraculous. Aricept has doubled my reading speed, increased my ability to use vocabulary, and enabled me to organize my thoughts much more quickly. It has practically tripled my reflexes. I can catch falling items in mid-air instantly and reflexively. Every day, my memory gets better and I've only been taking it a little over a week. I can jump from image to image from 40 years ago as if the events occurred yesterday, and these are thoughts and images I hadn't seen or remembered in over 40 years--all back for the first time since then as a result of aricept. Makes me feel like a superhero now! M 55 9 days
9/3/2008
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 1  dementia My mother took this drug and acted out of her mind.Discontinued and tried drug reccomended by nurse,Namenda this is a wonderfull drug for Dementia.It brought my mother back to her old self and no side affects.Ask for starter kit as it starts in low doses and works up to the 10 mg twice a day.She has been taking this six months and she is so glad to have found something that works. F 85 6 months
9/2/2008
 1  memory loss nausea, vomiting, confusion, unstable on feet, can't complete a sentence sensibly, muscle pain, excess saliva, insomnia, My mother has been taking aricept for 9 days, after about 2 days in she started with vomiting, nausea and she has become completely unable to keep anything down that she has eaten, she honestly looks like death warmed over. We now have taken her off of Aricept and hopefully she will be on the road to recovery. I would not recommend taking this drug at all considering the possible side effectS. Her memory was failing before Aricept, but she was at least alert and able to function normally. With Aricept her memory was even worse and she is completely unable to function or even walk without almost falling. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND TAKING THIS DRUG OR LETTING A LOVED ONE TAKE THIS DRUG. F 75 9 days
8/25/2008
 1  Alzheimer's Gradual increase in the following: Difficulty walking, unsteadiness, nighttime sleeplessness, vision problems, very limited ability to speak intelligibly, disturbing dreams leading to distress or anger, talking jibberish, hallucinated conversation between self and imagined other--often to self in mirror-- leading to episodes of rage and violent behavior. I am writing in behalf of my wife. I am her sole caregiver.She has been taking one 5 mg Aricept before bedtime for a minimum of 5 years, perhaps longer. She takes no other prescription drugs but does take DR. Sears' Omega RX fish oil, which I find to be helpful. The listed symptoms did not appear at once but gradually increased over a long period of time. It is difficult to identify SOME, but not all, of these symptoms as being exclusively side effects of Aricept, as distinguished from later stage effects of Alzheimer's itself. However, I have no no doubt about the most troubling ones, especially the episodes of extreme anxiety, anger , and violence that became certain to appear shortly after bedtime and often lasted for many hours. These are definitely the result of her taking the Aricept. Why? Because I saw an immediate reduction in these symptoms within 24 hours, a complete cessation after 2-3 days, and after six days of my discontinuing Aricept, those synmptoms of high anxiety F 63 5 years
8/18/2008
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 1  For Mild Altziemer's Stopped initiating any conversation. Bladder problems - urinary incontience as well as inability to empty bladder. Did not initiate any activities. Stopped moving around, his body seemed stiff. Had no facial expression or life in his eyes. We stopped the Aricept 2 weeks ago and the results have been amazing! It is like my father has come back from the dead! He talks, gets up on his own and initiates activity. I can only compare it to a coma that he has been in for 2 years and has finally woken from. He looks and acts alert. Some of the family came to visit and were delighted that he carried on a conversation with them because last time they saw him he sat in a chair with no expression and no verbal communication. I never realized the stupor he was in was due to the Aricept. Ironically, his memory is better since he stopped this drug! I will never put my dad back on Aricept. M 82 2 years
7/26/2008

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