Seroquel - Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia Message Board

Gabriel · 10-15-2007, 09:28 PM

I finally had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with both parents and the following morning with just my Dad. It is obvious that they are both on the decline cognitively. Mom went back to the house with one sister to get more "stuff". It was obvious that Dad didn't need to go back to the house. Dad was fine when I was with him but became aggitated when my other sister came to stay with him and I had to leave.

After a month in Assisted Living my Dad is not adjusting as well as we had hoped. He wants to know how we got his things in that place. He decided they had to come in through the window and wants to throw them back out of the window. He wants to go home and if he could find his van he could drive home. During the day he is ok but at night it is bad. He becomes angry and aggressive. This last until he finally sleeps. Mom is incapable of dealing with his rantings and makes it worse.

They changed his 4:30 PM Xanax to Ativan and that did not help. Now they have put him on Seroquel at 4:30 PM and Ativan at bedtime. Does anybody have any experience with Seroquel..... or any suggestions?

Love, Deb

angel_bear · 10-16-2007, 06:19 AM

Welcome to Sundowning ........ this sounds 'typical' unfortunately, and can be maintained with certain routines and medications, but it's not easy .....

Gabriel · 10-16-2007, 06:56 AM

I understand Sundowning and it has been an issue with Dad for years. It has just not been a problem to this extent. He was basically happy and easy to talk down at home. The major problem is that they lived in the house that Dad built for over 50 years. He wanted to die there but Mom not only cannot care for him now but refuses to have "people" in her house 24/7. According to her the "sitter" does just that.... SITS! The lady we had also cooked, cleaned, did laundry, and anything else that was needed but Mom only remembered she was there in her way. So to compensate for her inabilities we had to displace Dad. I so hate this disease and what it has done to my parents and my family.........

Love, Deb

ibake&pray · 10-16-2007, 08:01 AM

Deb,

Unfortunately the move has probably escalated your father's sundowner's nadn unfortunately there's no going back. The new surroundings are uncomfortable to him and not "home" and it has upset his world and his routine, as you have already found out.

seroquel may work, but it may take up to two weeks to see a steady change in your father. My mother is on it. I have mixed emotions about it. I actually fired a Nurse Practioner that was dosing my mother with this without conferring with the doctor. She had my mom at dangerous levels and not listening to the staff nurses-but that is another story. Seroquel can work if the staff watchs and moniters your dad and works with him, but it's a rough adjustment for him and you.

DeeDee7 · 10-16-2007, 08:47 AM

My Mother has been on Seroquel for quite some time. She started *seeing* people who were not there, this disrupted her so much that she would walk the floors all nite etc. looking for them. She would try to make them leave, when we told her no one was there she became agitated. Finally we would just say that we had run them off, that they were gone now.

She is in a nursing home now, she still needs the meds or the symptoms return. It did take about 30 days for the medicine to load in her system and to completely work properly.

Hope this helps, DeeDee