If Aricept, Exilon and Reminyl are used to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer’s, this NMDA antagonist is used to treat moderate to severe.
In the moderate stages, you may see patients exhibiting an inability to recognize friends and family, tremors, and confusion with person, place or time.
Severe stages, may show you: loss of ability to communicate; loss of verbal skills; and extreme problems with mood, behavior, hallucinations, and delirium. This requires intensive support and care.
This NMDA antagonist helps prevent the concurrent clinical worsening of cognitive, global and functional domains. This medication is also being studied with brachial plexus anesthesia’s for traumatic amputations in the effort to prevent phantom limb pain.
Image provided by the Wikimedia Commons by Thomas Quine
The answer to last weeks drug was: Digoxin (Digitalis, Lanoxin)
The image you saw, was the Fox Glove plant, which is the plant which the drug is extracted. As per the title ‘Bloody Fingers’, this is what the Scottish call the plant.
Potassium-sparing diuretics: interaction with digoxin in elderly men.
Supraventricular Arrhythmias – Atrial Fibrillation
Top Ten Dangerous Drug Interactions in Long-Term Care – Take note of the interactions with Warfarin