Stopping Alzheimer's Drugs In Late Stages Can Benefit Some People

Photo credit James Williams Dear Carol: I read your column about older people and medicines so I wanted to write. My husband has had multiple health problems during his life so he's been on a lot of medicine. Six years ago, he developed symptoms from Alzheimer’s and has also been on drugs that were supposed to help slow down the progress of the disease. These medicines seemed to help in the beginning, but after a while, they seemed to stop working. Recently, the heart doctor eliminated my husband’s cholesterol drug and his general physician took him off several others. What did the most good, though, was when the Alzheimer’s specialist took him off of his dementia medicine. The doctor explained that these drugs can help some people early on, but when people get to my husband’s stage they often don’t help and can even make some people worse. My husband is doing better physically and seems clearer now. I want to encourage you to keep telling people that sometimes taking people off of medicine, even Alzheimer’s medicine, in the late stages can be good. — KR. Continue reading on Inforum to learn more about dementia drugs in the late stages of the disease: Support a caregiver or jump-start discussion in support groups with real stories - for bulk orders of Minding Our Elders e-mail Carol                  Related StoriesReceiving a Defined Dementia Diagnosis May ...
Source: Minding Our Elders - Category: Geriatrics Authors: Source Type: blogs