What Are The Side Effects Of Large Dose Of Namenda?

Posted on Sat, 7 Jun 2014

Question: My husband's medication was just changed from 10 mg of namenda to 28 mg. he had made inappropriate sexual advances towards his sister every time I left the room. She has been married 6 times and had relations with her brotherinlaw so I am not sure if it is the frontal lobe low digesting problem or if he really thought he could get somewhere. In either case it devastated me his wife of almost 54 years. My question though is whether this is too large of an increase in namenda? Also, after I really yelled about it to him he never did it again and he asked her to wear a robe. She is classified as morbidly obese w most of her weight in her upper body and wears white background slightly printed tight pj's. She asked me if she could stay w us for a few months until she got on her feet and I agreed. Also this episode happened right after I told my husband that I had to have a lung operation so it hit me doubly hard and I had a hard time sleeping even. My operation is over was successful and no cancer so I am grateful for that. Sister in law is still here and has not found stable work yet. She is an RN so it is confusing to me why she cannot find a steady job. My question though is about namenda dosage increase from 10 to 28 mg. also, doctor gave me a coupon but because my husband is on Medicare they would not honor it.

Answered by Dr. Vaishalee Punj (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
It may cause some neurological effects

Detailed Answer:
Hi
Thanks for posting your query on HealthcareMagic.

I am sorry to know of the situation that you are facing.
Namenda is memantine and is used in moderate to severe Alzheimer's Disease. The starting dose is 5 mg per day and the dose is increased to 20 mg per day. It has to be increased in 5 mg increments. The interval between increments has to be atleast 1 week or even more.

The neurological side effects of this medicine include confusion, agitation, headache, anxiety, hallucinations, depression, somnolence. These side effects confounding the symptoms of dementia, would make judgement difficult for your husband. Altered judgment may be responsible for this one time behavior of his. There is some evidence of altered behavior in mice but enough research has not been conducted on humans about it. That is all that is known in medical literature about it.

I would suggest not to look for intentions behind someone's mistakes.

Let me know if I can assist you further.
Take care

Dr Vaishalee

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar