I get asked this question frequently: "Does your mother take Aricept"? When I answer yes, I get the follow-up. "Does it work?"
I am certain that Aricept works well for my mother. There is little doubt that it has slowed the progression of Alzheimer's disease and helped smooth out her behavior. I know from personal experience it works well with other persons suffering from Alzheimer's but not all of them. I also learned it is critical if you suspect Alzheimer's or dementia to get to the doctor and get on the appropriate medication as soon as possible. Delaying this decision can be more harmful then you could ever imagine.
Previously, I wrote about author Terry Pratchett, who suffers from posterior cortical atrophy — a rare form of Alzheimer's. In the article Terry says the drug had a dramatic positive effect on him. Terry is raising the issue in the UK about the cost of Aricept and whether it should be free to those suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Aricept isn't cheap. Our cost is $166.29 for a 30-day supply or approximately $1995 a year. Medicare covers the first $2510 of prescribed medications before you get into the so-called doughnut hole (we pay the out of pocket co-pay of $25, so the actual coverage is less then $2510). Paying for Aricept plus my mother's other medications gets us into the doughnut hole early in the year. When you get into the doughnut hole you pay for the next $1540 in prescribed medications. This means zero coverage between $2510 and $4050. This is how Medicare works.
Our personal physician helps us out by giving us samples of drugs when he has them. Amazingly, he has not had Aricept samples available to us this entire year. It gets me to wondering about Pfizer. I guess they intend to make as much as they can before Aricept goes generic in 2010. When that happens Alzheimer's patients all over the world will benefit greatly. We used to pay over $100 a month for Zocor (simvastatin) but last year it went generic and it has now dropped to $10 per month (thank goodness).
Article comments
1 - Lisa Solod Warren
I really can't honestly tell of the Aricept is working for my mother or not. She is deteriorting slowly but surely and I have no idea whether she would be any different without it. She lives in assisted living and thank God can afford that and the drug as she has refused all offers to live with any of her daughters. It is a terrible disease and my two sisters and I have discussed long and hard whether we would want to know if we have a genetic marker for the disease as our maternal grandmother had it, too. None of us has yet decided.
2 - P. Brown
I'm in agreement that Aricept is very costly and needs to be free or very cheap, its a double standard to say that you want to find alternatives that aid in helping or even cures but when its found a price tag is the brunt of effectivness. are pharmaceutictal so blissed on MONEY, that people continue to suffer with illness becuase theyr'e not fortunate to be millonaires or wealthy to afford some relief. Pharmacy co. needs to send Reps. out to observe patients suffering from alzheimers and the pain of family/friends can't do anything to comfort them much. If your going to advertise make if affordable for everyone!
3 - BN
Are you kidding? This is all about making money for pharmaceutical companies and no, they dont care about your, or my aging parents who might benefit from this drug. I think that much of this is simply manufactured nonsense in order to further degrade society at the hands of wealthy profiteers. Money is truly the root of all evil and pharma companies, lawyers, corporate execs and much of the medical field are the minions for spreading that evil. Rid the world of these useless life sucking entities and we would all be in a better place.
4 - Leslie
I want my father to see a neurologist to see if he feels my dad would benefit from Aricept. His memory is getting worse and I understand it slows down the process but does not make memory get better. What exactly is Aricept supposed to do?
5 - Monica
My mother inlaw was shaking ,scared,mute and didn't want to eat and shower .we started this medication and it has been a miracle she is bathing going outside cooking and talking .it has truly been amazing