I seem to be hearing alot of Dr's giving patients ativan. I am not Dr but ativan or generic lorazepam is anxiety medication. I was with mom at her Dr today and her first Dr was overmedicating her with alot of crap. Dementia is his specialty and he started her on donepezil a few weeks ago and it seemed to help somewhat. Today he also ordered Namenda XR (memantine HCI) He said it works as a booster to the donepenzil. Again I am not a Dr but maybe this will help. Since seeing this Dr I am hoping my mom will at least maintain where she is at.
The only way to tell if a drug will work well for your loved one is to have your loved one try it. Start only ONE new drug at a time. Start at a low dose. Observe carefully any changes. Increase the dose gradually up to the therapeutic level. Back off if there are unacceptable side effects. Try something else.
Sigh. All this takes a lot of patience. Not all doctors and certainly not all caregivers have a lot of patience. And sometimes it doesn't even pay off. In our case the drugs he was one improved my husband's quality of life considerably. It was worth the effort to find the ones that worked best.