Med help

[Glenna]

Can anyone tell me what meds are helpful in calming the terrible anxiety of dementia? I'm taking mom to her doctor this afternoon and am so sleep deprived I can't seem to think at all. Seem to remember people swearing by Seroquel? But that it costs a bloody fortune in the US.

Up til now mom's problems have been aphasia, short-term memory seems all gone, and the constant anxiety. She hadn't been psychotic yet except for some bad med experiences.

She's had periodic panic attacks that would pass with a small dose of alprazolam. But that doesn't keep her in a steady calm and the SSRIs make her worse.

Wednesday was a bad day for many hours, and Friday was a day and night marathon of hell. She was very tired and fell asleep around 6:00 p.m., only to wake up a half hour later and begin searching for money, accusing me of taking all her money and beating her up, and asked me if I was her husband. Wanted to call the police for protection from me and was yelling for her sons.

Finally got her calmed down, but I realized that had she known how to call the police, I could very well have ended up in jail had they believed her. As for her sons, when she calmed down and I told her she wanted her sons and the things she accused me of doing, she couldn't fathom any of it. (My brothers are not nice people, and guess it's best to just leave it at that.)

It would help to know what med works for others in calming the terrible anxiety. I hate to not trust her doctors, but have had too many bad experiences, and the doctor she has now has been the best of the lot.

Thanks for any input you might have.
It will be a miracle if mom and I survive one more day.

Oh, and she had somehow wolfed down an entire bunch of bananas and two mini pies (which I made the mistake of buying but not again), so I'm even wondering if the potassium in the bananas might have done it or something else she ate. Her brain does not register that she's full and she constantly craves more food.

[Martha H]

Dear Glenna,

Sorry your past few days have been such a hel l ... tell the doctor everything you just told us!

Medications should become more affordable in 2006 when people on medicare can opt for a drug plan partially sponsored by medicare. Your Mom should have already received a list of those plans available in your state, if she is 65 or older. I already signed up for one with no deductible, and the cost will be deducted from my Social Security check. At this time I am not on any prescriptions drugs, but it's like fire insurance, you dont wait until the house is on fire. This should save your Mom quite a bit towards the cost of seroquel if that is the doctor's choice. Obviously she MUST take something so that she and you can sleep nights! I wish my Mom had taken a sleeping pill. She was not angry or upset but spent whole nights wandering around the apartment, shining a flashlight in my face (trying to figure out who I was?) and rearranging, or disarranging, everything.

Good luck

Love,

Martha

[janeslk]

My FIL is the one on Seroquel and it is expensive. He is also on Zoloft and buspirone HCL for anxiety. His medication was upped after he threatened all the other patients in his AD unit one morning. We didn't know about it when we visited him later in the day and he seemed calm and quiet. The nurse called to request permission to increase his seroquel dosage and we were really surprised. She told me that they would try this medication as long as it worked and then try something else. According to the nurse, there all sorts of medications to counter the aggression problems.

[BarbaraH]

Hi -

What helped my mother's anxiety was a mild antidepressant that her doctor put her on to stop her constant crying. Even on that, she was occasionally combative with staff when she didn't want to do what she needed to do. She was like a small fussy child acting out.

You do need to document all that happened and have the doctor do the same in case there's ever trouble. Your mother probably needs a MedicAlert bracelet that shows she's got AD and should not be believed.

It's time to look into the legal issues of Durable Power of Attorney and such if that hasn't yet been done.

So sorry that your mother has this diagnosis and that you have this to deal with. It's not easy. Come and talk as you need to.

Wishing you well - Barbara

[angel_bear]

HI Glenna,

I understand your frustration and fears, having just come through this myself.

My charge was combative, with aphasia and suspicious, which made caring somewhat hard. I had the advantage of living in a separate area of the house which meant I could do a lot of caring from a distance. I also had my kids and husband who could help out as well. And of course, God forbid if any of the rest of the family would help us, we were imagining things.

I managed to write a letter to our doctor (we share the same doctor) before a joint visit and thankfully he read it and read it well. I listed her behaviours, her responses and other important facts such as collapses, skin colouring, eyes (clear or cloudy). He finally came over to my side of the camp with that first letter. We kept that routine up for quite some time until other family members started to take over the doctor visits and no letters could be sent to pre-warn. Why? Because they didn't like the results coming back (eg: She's getting worse) so they took her themselves and ignored sage advice.

But I digress .. sorry ... I'm good at that LOL

Be careful writing a journal. Mine was discovered by family members and because I had used it as a personal diary for myself as well as logging events of behaviours, who helped, who didn't help, how I coped, how my charge coped etc etc, it has been held against me and I've been verbally abused. By all means, write a journal, just be careful ok?

Anyway, our doctor prescribed a mild anti-depressant of Zoloft. This gave my charge bad belly aches and she refused to take any more. He changed it to another brand I can't remember, and then finally changed it to Aqua*something*. This made her noticeably calmer although it didn't cut out the combativness, it gave her confidence that she was independent which caused a whole new set of problems (extra wandering, daytime sleeps, night time roamings). The antidepressent DID help a bit.

But I will tell you this: She's now in a home and she's CONTENT. NOBODY has seen her so calm and happy. Why? Well the theory is she doesn't have to think anymore. She doesn't have the challenge of the million questions that upset AD patients such as "What do I wear today?" Those upsetting confusing questions that bombard us all day (what to eat? What to wear? Where to go? Who to talk to?) have been replaced with good solid food (she's put on weight!) clothes placed out, supervised outings and walks around the complex, and she's got 19 other people to chat to whenever she wants !! She's helping around the 'house' with housework, folding laundry, cleaning down tables because she CAN choose to do those things or not do those things, the pressure has been lifted!!

She was fairly well sedated with Serenace in the early stages of transition to the NH, but I think that has been stopped now (it was only as needed) that made her VERY compliant and dopey.

We also experimented with Serapax, but that just knocked her out and was very scary ... we didnt continue with that ....

Goodluck Glenna ... and please remember, you ARE NOT ALONE in this journey ....

Hugs
Sally