Dear Jo Ann,

My mother in law did better on Aricept than on Excelon.   I have no idea why
as they are supposed to work on the same brain chemical.   We were switched
to the Excelon and she got much worse.  Switched back to Aricept at our
insistence, and there was immediate noticeable improvement.

Regards,
Evelyn

Hi Jo Ann,
My Mom is on Exelon. We also had major problems with nausea and
getting a full meal into her first. We didn't follow the
titration schedule and gave her the 3mg for a few months because
of the side effects then we went up to the 6mg dose. She still
had nausea but the improvement was amazing. In fact we stopped at
the 6 mg dose because she was so aware of her deficits. A year
later the NH upped the dose to 12mg w/o telling us and we just
thought she was having a really up period altho she was having
major vomiting problems. By the time I found out they had upped
the dose and not used the 9mg dose in between she had been on it
for about 4 weeks and we were unwilling to go back since this
time she had improved so much and was not as aware of her
deficits. We did add in an anti nausea med at that time. If your
Mom won't eat tho maybe trying one of the other meds would be
more appropriate.

Jo - you may not see actual improvement, but that doesn't mean it
isn't helping. The drug manufacturer only says:

"EXELON is used to treat people with mild or moderate Alzheimer's
disease (AD). At either stage, EXELON can help slow the rate of
decline, maintain, or even sometimes improve the person's current
level of function."

Note the word SOMETIMES - so don't expect improvement - just hope it
slows things down.

Mary G.

Jo Ann,

Here's a useful link on Aricept vs. Exelon:
http://www.eisai.com/view_press_release.asp?ID=210&press=28

Evelyn,

Exelon is not only an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor but also a
butyrylcholinesterase inhibitor.  Although it is thought that most AD
drugs affect both enymes to certain extents, this effect is well
documented by the manufacturer and it is significant in the case of
Exelon.  Novartis does not provide data regarding the impact on AD.  

Surprisingly, the two drugs look *very* different on paper (i.e.,
Exelon isn't a simple modification of Aricept).  

Darryl.

We never could get past the nausea and anorexia problems caused by Exelon
despite staying on the low dose for a long time. My MIL lost a pound a week
during the time we tried Exelon. She also changed from a generally pleasant
person to an unpleasant gripe. We did see some slight memory improvement
after a month. After quitting the Exelon the appetite slowly returned and so
did the generally pleasant demeanor. The slight memory gains faded within a
few days. We made a risk vs benefit decision to stop the Exelon.      s2d

--
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"   Thomas Jefferson

"May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion"     Dwight D.
Eisenhower