Alzheimer's Medications: What makes a differance?

One of the requests made RE Research in our last poll was to talk about medications and their impact on the quality of life for the Alzheimer's Disease survivors. A while ago mom said to me, "you are a sweet heart" and I replied "you are a sweet heart also". She looked back me for a few seconds and then said "I guess we are just a couple of sweet hearts!!" Before Mom was put on her current Alzheimer's med, she was unable to inject this humor into a conversation.

The current Alzheimer's medications help to slow the decline of the disease. I help Directors manage residents behaviors and these medications have a positive impact. We also see a profound decline in the cognitive functioning in those who are taken off the med. Additionally more behaviors occur and they often seem to just enjoy life less. The common myth says "there comes a time when the person with Alzheimer's disease no longer gets benefits from these medications". Both the research and our experience shows discontinuing the med will precipitate a huge and very steep decline.

In our next posting, we discuss other Medications which make a difference. May God bless you and hold you in the pal of Her hand.