Was It The Aricept Or The Diet?

[Mrs. N]

My Aunt has Down Syndrome. She was dx'd with schizophrenia some years ago and is on meds for it. Over the last several years, she has had several evaluations for dementia. A couple of months ago, she was put on Aricept to try to stop the progression of the dementia. It did not seem to make a diff at all, so they increased the dose.

Meanwhile, she seems to hear voices and she is always confused. Things came to a head a couple of weeks ago. As one of her caregivers, I put my $2.02 worth in, and her guardian, the sister of the DS Aunt decided out of desperation to try eliminating gluten, dairy and aspartame from DS Aunt's diet. Today was the 2 week mark and WOW! What a difference! She acts less confused, does not seem to have heard any voices while she was with me, and seemed more relaxed. The guardian aunt said that she noticed that DS aunt was a lot more at ease yesterday. Sundays have been very difficult days for the DS aunt. There isn't the usual routine and it is much different than week days.

So anyway, does anyone know anything about Aricept? Does it take weeks to finally kick in, or do you think this change has more to do with eliminating the gluten, dairy and aspartame? If it were one of my kids, I'd assume it was the food issues simply based on my own relief after eliminating problem foods.

Thanks for any input you feel like giving.

[Nancym]

In my signature there's a link to a collection of info including a lot about gluten and the brain and schizophrenia.

[sbj]

So anyway, does anyone know anything about Aricept? Does it take weeks to finally kick in, or do you think this change has more to do with eliminating the gluten.

I don't have any personal experience with Aricept but I was curious so I looked at their website. It says:

"It may take up to several months to start seeing the benefits of ARICEPT."

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I'm glad that things are better for your aunt.