WHY would Dr. prescribe ATAVAN 3 times day - Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia Message Board

multisynic · 03-01-2007, 06:39 PM

Hi. My Mom has moderate Alzheimer and is in a nice assisted living.It is a locked facility. She has had it for 10 years or so. My guess is that she has some form of Dimentia. She has always been a pill popper and loves her tranquilizers. She was driving up to four years ago. Anyway, here's my question. She is on Prozac, Zyprexa, and recently Numenda. She doesn't wear a diaper but needs help dressing and showering. Physically she is good. No heart problems or anything except for some arthritis. She's 89 years old.
She's been living at this place for three years and seems to like it although it is very expensive. Today, my wife and I went in to take her to dinner. We haven't been there in a week or so. She was like a zombie. Eating with her hands, nose running, etc. She still is very polite and thankful and witty mind you. After we ate, she fell asleep in the car. When we got back to the facility we put her to bed and she went directly to slumberland. I asked the nurse what she had been given. She said the Doctor wants to try her on Atavan 3 times a day for a month. I think this is rediculous. Anyone have any advice? I think they just want her to be easier to manage . She loves to walk and wander. I think a Valium at bedtime is more than enough. Any thoughts?
Jack

ceedee · 03-07-2007, 09:26 AM

I see no one has answered your question. I am a nurse and am familiar with Ativan. It is an antianxiety drug and is normally given 2-3 times a day. Geriatric patients are usually given 1/2 the normal strength of 1-2 mg. If she is too drowsy, it may be because she is getting too much along with the Zyprexia which also makes one sleepy. Has she been getting anxious or agitated lately? She may only need it occasionly as needed. You need to talk to the doctor about it.

gdschillins · 05-23-2007, 06:46 PM

my mom take Atavan along with a sleeping pill and Lexapro as well as Something else that goes along with all that. She takes Atavan 2 times a day only because she is very hard to deal with. She too likes to walk and wander but the atavan actually helps her not be so anxious and weepy. My mom wants her independnce and unfortunally none of the other drugs helps her cruise through this disease except the atavan. I actually took her off of it because for her it's "when needed" that was a BIG mistake!!! "When needed" for her is until this disease is not more.

catgirlbarb · 06-09-2007, 09:38 PM

My mother was in a nursing home and received the following medications: Risperdol, ativan, trazadone,and paxil.. they almost killed her. I have a law suit against this facility for oversedation which has been confirmed by the state board of health. Ativan was given to her again at the new facility and once again put her over the edge. She has COPD and ativan should not be given to people with breathing disorders. Her blood pressure dropped and she became unresponsive. I have asked that she not be given this drug. I do not want her going through the nightmare that she has already been through. She is in the moderate stages of alzheimers. She was rushed to a Boston hospital to be detoxed for a month after being so severely oversedated. You have to watch them like a hawk. Some facilities want to make their work load easier and will drug up the residents to the point of incapacitation. This desease is the pits!!

Lilybean · 07-25-2007, 10:31 PM

It's easy to say that residents are "drugged up" to make them easier to handle for the caregivers, but you also have to take into consideration what an anxious resident does to the rest of the residents in the unit. One hysterical resident can set off anxiety attacks for all of the others, which doesn't seem very fair. Did she have a psych eval before she was prescribed the anxiety meds? It seems that you should have at least been informed of a med change....or told of the behavior that warranted it.... Assisted living facilities are also a lot less likely to put up with anxious/uncontrollable residents than a nursing home due to the simpler services they are supposed to provide. Sometimes the decision has to be made whether to try medication or move on to the next step