I'm new to this board.  What I've read here has been helpful and
interesting.  I'd like to first give some background about my family's
involvement with Alzheimer's, then our experience with Memantine and,
finally, some specific questions about your experiences with
Memantine.

My mother, 89, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and is somewhere
between the moderate and severe stages of the disease.  She lives with
my father, 91, who is a 24/7 caregiver, in good health and the object
of our family's concern. They live in independent living in a large,
beautiful retirement facility.  My mother sometimes thinks her husband
is her father, sometimes thinks she has an infant child, thinks her
long since deceased parents are still alive, still thinks she is on
vacation and will be going home soon, has a memory span of between 15
seconds and 5 minutes, etc., etc.

Our experience with Memantine has been mixed.  My mother has been on
Aricept for around 3 years and continues taking 10mg daily.  Their
doctor, at the retirement facility, prescribed Memantine back around
mid January, after my father gave the doctor my printout on Memantine
from WebMD.  (The Doctor had not heard of Memantine, which I thought
was strange, but that is a another story.)  They followed the well
devised instructions and slowly ramped up the dosage from 5mg to 20mg
daily over a period of about 4 weeks.

We have noticed that my mother is more aware but we (my Brother and
Sister) are not sure if that is a good thing, especially for my
father.  The increased awareness has made her more aware that
something is wrong with her, she questions my father more and is
generally more confused about everything.  It is making life more
difficult for my 91 year old father/caregiver.

Starting about about 2 weeks ago (8 weeks after starting Memantine)
she has had occasional bouts of diarrhea (about 3 times a week ) that
she can not control, which is very physically demanding on my father.
Last week the Doctor said to reduce the Memantine from 20 to
10mg/daily, but, from what I've read,  Memantine is more likely to
cause  constipation than diarrhea. Yesterday was the first time she
ever had major accidents with urination.  I'm not sure if the sudden
incontinence is related to the Memantine or something else, such as
the natural progression of the disease.

My question to you.  Has anyone else observed an increase in diarrhea
or incontinence after starting Memantine?   I know that some here have
written about an increase in confusion which very closely parallels
our experience, so I know that is not abnormal.

Our objective in starting Memantine was to make things easier for my
father, especially since Memantine was supposed to prolong the time
the patient could take care of them self, i.e. toileting, etc.  So far
our experience has not been positive.  I would like to have my mother
continue on Memantine for 26-28 weeks and match the length of the
studies, thereby hoping to see the full positive effect of the drug.
However, the increased mental and physical hardship on my father may
cause us to stop giving the drug to my mother.

Sorry about the length of this post. I hope the details are more
relevant than boring.

Bob