What are the side effects of stopping aricept and namenda (memantine)?

Worsening: Back to a baseline, significantly lower level of functioning is the most common phenomenon, which is seen by family/staff as a sudden worsening of the dementia (depending on the stage), it may consist of forgetting names, inability to execute simple tasks, not recognizing people/places, incontinence, etc.

Deterioration: It has been well known that sudden cessation of Aricept (donepezil) will result in a cognitive crash within 6 weeks, and if another anticholinergic drug is not used to replace, the prior level of intellectual functioning is lost forever.