Has anyone thought of taking their loved one off the meds that slow the progression of Alzheimer's? It's just prolonging the inevitable.

It’s about quality of life. If the person is able to enjoy others’ company, going for walks, gardening or other things that make life pleasant, why not continue all meds? But if she’s bedbound, emotionally unstable (anger, paranoia that can’t be controlled), and miserable, that’s no quality of life. Each person is different.I would not want to live if I were miserable and making others miserable as well. My dad had lymphoma and dementia. Chemo for lymphoma was killing him. He decided to stop it and die. Other life extending meds were discontinued. He never took dementia meds because there was no point, he was dying of something else. It’s a good example of taking everything into consideration and being realistic and sensible.

I believe exercise & a healthy diet has been shown to aide oxygen & circulation. A lifelong preventative approach for probably every disease.

Blood thinners may assist to lesson some risk of blood clots & strokes (maybe for Vasular Dementia?) Again, a healthy diet & exercise where possible.

Quality of life is a good aim.

So I suppose you weigh up pros & cons: proven/supposed benefits with burdonsome side effects & cost.

I suspect Big Phama is happy to collect your dime, regardless of benefit or burden to your LO.

If a drug can be given when diagnosis is done early on and itvstops the progression than I am all for it. But there comes a time when Dementia progresses that these meds do no good. My Mom was never put on them.

I wish doctors would discontinue ALL life extending drugs for dementia patients, and let nature take its course...much like hospice does. They would (yes, sadly) end up on hospice sooner rather than later, but meet the end of their life in a more dignified and merciful way.

The overall timeline isn't going to change that much with medication, but despite that studies have proven that these medications may delay the onset of some of the more troubling symptoms and therefore likely improve quality of life for both the person with dementia and their caregiver.

Hi - I appreciate your question because it's something I thought to consider regarding an aunt with some dementia. Taking the medication doesn't extend their life, so would it be worthwhile taking the medication so that however long their life is, it might possibly have a chance of keeping their mind more in tact?

Is there an upside or downside in taking the medication? If anyone can share input, it would also be really helpful to me as well. thank you

The drugs are useless, as Alva said, except to the pocketbooks of Big Pharma. But that aside, I agree with you 100%......extending the life of an elder with dementia is an act of cruelty, imo.

Most of them are not proven to work at all, anyway, so why keep someone on them? I wouldn't take them, nor ask any elder to do so either. Mostly they are working well for the drug companies.