In the latest e-newsletter, this association mentioned the cholinesterase inhibitor (ChEI). Has anyone had any experience using this drug?
Thanks.

My husband has been on the Exelon patch for over five years. It is one type of cholinesterase inhibitor. Aricept is one, as well. The Exelon patch helped dramatically at first. There is simply no way to know whether or not it is still effective but we are choosing to keep him on it.

Thanks for your input. How did it help? What dramatic change(s) did you see? Our doctor thinks it is good for agitation and hallucinations, neither of which my husband (age 81) has experienced as yet.

There was improved cognition with the low dose [4.6mg] Exelon patch and he became less agitated. There was no discernible improvement with the higher [9.5mg] dose patch but the doctors have kept him on the 9.5mg and say that they don't prescribe the 4.6 as a maintenance dose.

My dad was on Aricept and Namenda, which increased his cognition for a while, but also made him painfully aware of how incapacitated he was. Overall, it got to be a very negative thing and I tried to have him taken off those drugs. If I could change anything, I'd have had his atty. file a suit to get him off the drugs, or I would have moved him out of state to where I live. In the longrun, his last months were MUCH more miserable because of the Namenda and Aricept. He'd finally gotten to the lalaland state of not knowing just how bad off he was a few months prior to his dr. giving him these 2 drugs without my POA consent. Many people find those drugs very helpful - it is all so individual and they are certainly worth a try, but getting someone off them is important if their overall health and happiness are worse. Good luck, Lynn