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The Dr. that wanted to put Mom in the N.H. 2 years ago is quite excited that Mom's Physical health is better than it's been in over 10 yrs. Now he and I both feel that since she will be living longer than we expected, maybe we should try to slow down the dementia. Anyone have results, good or bad, with Namenda?

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In my experience Namenda was worthless, and it can actually do harm. My mother moved from Aricept to Namenda then to Namenda XR, 25 mg, then back to regular 10 mg Namenda twice a day, then Namenda once a day, and then the geriatric psychiatrist she ended up with stopped Namenda altogether because it was adding to her anxiety, rather than helping cognitive skills. You be just as well off with a placebo than Namenda, neither will do any good, but at least the placebo won't hurt her. They just give this to us caregivers to "give us hope." But they really don't expect it will really do anything.
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I see from another posting your mother has vascular dementia, which is different than the Alzheimer's Disease my mother has. I have a consumer report link on Alzheimer's drugs, but don't know their effectiveness for vascular dementia
http://www.consumerreports.org/health/best-buy-drugs/alzheimers.htm
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My mother is on Namenda. I was told by her Dr. this was not a cure but a chance to "slow down" the process of dementia. It wasn't going to change her behaviour so I did not look for it. She has been on it for approx 6 months and she has seemed to stabilze not progress in the dementia. I feel it is like anything...it depends on the individual and not going to be the same for everyone. Why even take a "placebo". My Dr. said what has helped her mother the most is "music", it is calming and she loves to sing along. What I do for Mom is to keep her with puzzles, play card games and do word games...It bothers me that a geriatric phychiatrist would go back and forth so much on a drug rollercoaster. Even though my mother is taking Namenda she still has and will continue to have issues. Not easy and I try everyday to adjust my behaviour to help her deal.
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Thank you for the feed back Jeff. When I googled it, the feedback was not good. I wanted to hear from people I trust...AC folks. Thanks again!
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Thank you Miller. I had a long talk with my pharmacist today and decided to give it a try. BTW, since I can't say this out loud, to anyone I know I want to confess something. I have a mad crush on him! Shhhhh, it's a secret!
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