My mom has significant short term memory and attention issues, but still good thinking, problem solving, and conversational skills. Several medical professionals have suggested she stop taking the donepezil as she has been on it for 8 years. Has anyone done this and noticed a rapid change in mental abilities?
I had a homecare client who was on it for years. For some reason nursing came on the scene then insisted on hospice, God only knows why.
Long story short, she was taken off the donezepil and within a few days she became non-verbal, unable to feed herself, and developed a bad difficulty swallowing. She lived in this condition bedridden for three years.
Don't take your mother off the donezepil.
Suddenly stopping donepezil could harm your health. The medication's positive effects may reverse and symptoms may worsen. Your doctor might give a tapering dose if you need to stop taking donepezil. This tapering dose will manage your withdrawal effectively."
Source: https://healthmatch.io/medications/donepezil#allergy-information
More info about it here:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3506829/
This seems to be a medication that should not be suddenly stopped.
Oh I wanted to add when aunt will have a conversation she is still is very thoughtful and relevant. I said something about a decision being someone’s choice to make. She commented. ‘Sometimes we choose wrong.” To me that was full of meaning for someone 97 with dementia for 10+ years.
When my Husband went on Hospice I chose to discontinue the medication I did NOT notice a decline, other than what he had been experiencing as a "normal" decline. He had been on Aricept for about 9 or 10 years, he was also prescribed Namenda at one point but there was such a change in personality and functioning that I titrated him off.
The medication is supposed to slow the decline and is typically prescribed early in the diagnosis.
There are other "newer" medications that might be effective later.
The kicker as I see it is once the medication is started do you actually know for sure if it is working. how would have the decline been without the medication. And if you discontinue it how do you know what the decline would have been like with it.
Now if the decline is dramatic once you go off the medication then yes I would see a connection and restart the medication. But if the decline is gradual you really don't know.
So I suppose the only way to find out what would happen is to discontinue it and monitor. Find out the proper way to discontinue and be prepared to restart if you need / wish to.