Aricept at night

[Mr Pharm S]

Is there any specific reason why Aricept should be taken at night?

[crit care]

i could just answer with "because it says so in the BNF" but thats nto really helping anyone!! so....

ScienceDirect - Experimental Gerontology : Donepezil-induced REM sleep augmentation enhances memory performance in elderly, healthy persons

enhances REM sleep and apparently there is a correlation between memory enhancement and REM sleep....guess thats why they take donepezil at night

[JayEm]

I asked the same question to my pre-reg tutor a while ago and we couldn't really find a satisfying answer.

Crit care's post above is interesting however the half life of the drug is very long (~70 hours) so taking it at night would have little impact on drug-plasma concentrations unlike simvastatin for example (~3 hours).

[crit care]

my answer wasn't based on any of my knowledge...it was the first reasonable looking hit that came up in google, but interesting come back!

[crit care]

To add onto it all...apparently it can cause drowsiness in some patients, hence take it at night. But in about 9% of patients it can cause insomnia (ironic?!?) so they can take it in the morning. I guess due to the long half life of the drug it shouldn't really matter when you take the drug.

Found it amongst all the sites offering me to buy aricept!

[JayEm]

I also found this site which says taking it at night minimises some of the GI effects:
When to Take Aricept » Pharmacy Advocates, LLC

Still not convinced though!

[crit care]

its a once daily dose so it can't be too bad to take it morning noon or night! i doubt many patients on it would remember to take it ...rude!