Sleep disorder post Covid-19, adverse effects of dementia medication 03598...UK
An 87-year-old man was diagnosed with mild dementia in 2019 but did not require any medicine for this. In July 2020, a few months after he recovered from Covid-19, he started having prolonged disturbing dreams during which he would get visibly agitated and scream in his sleep. These nightmares occurred two to three times in a month and his caretakers found it difficult to wake him up at that time. In June 2021, he was prescribed Aricept, a medicine for dementia. This caused extreme weakness upon waking in the morning, difficulty in walking and shortness of breath with palpitations even on slight exertion. The symptoms improved on discontinuing Aricept but recurred on restarting it. His cardiologist confirmed these to be the side effects of Aricept but in spite of this, they decided to continue it.
On 10 Sept 2021 he was given the following remedy for sleep disorders:
#1. CC15.6 Sleep disorders…1 dose 30 minutes before bedtime
After three weeks the frequency of the nightmares reduced; he now had one episode in three weeks, an improvement of 30%. He never had a problem with falling asleep but he felt he was now sleeping better. On 3 October he was given the following remedy for dementia and to combat the side-effects of Aricept:
#2. CC3.4 Heart emergencies + CC3.6 Pulse irregular + CC9.1 Recuperation + CC12.1 Adult tonic + CC15.1 Mental & Emotional tonic + CC17.3 Brain & Memory tonic + CC18.2 Alzheimer’s disease…TDS
There was no improvement and, so, on 20 Oct, #2 was enhanced to:
#3. Aricept potentised at 200C + #2…TDS
In less than a month on 15 Nov, the patient reported that he felt 100% better. He was very happy as his energy levels were back to normal and his walking and breathing difficulties and palpitations were completely gone. There was a continuous improvement in the reduction of frequency of his nightmares and the last episode was on 1 December. After six weeks of undisturbed sleep, #1 was stopped in the middle of Jan 2022. As of Feb 2022, the patient continues to have restful sleep and now takes Aricept at half the recommended dose. He feels happy to continue #3 at TDS to prevent the progression of dementia and to counter the side effects of Aricept.