She is on no medication other than Lorazapam for anxiety, 3 mg a day. What medication can we add to relieve her anxious life. She recently is struggling with walking and incontenence but the anxiety is the worst symptom for us all to manage. We cant go eat out or go to a movie because of her insistent anxiety. What do we do now.
His Neurologists are amazed that he is even alive. His body chemistry is not normal. He can take a medicine for one thing and instead of helping it gets worse.
He was given contrast dye for an MRI and he was allergic and went into anaphalactic shock so severe he had to have a hole cut in his airway. Two weeks later they decided to give him a contrast dye called Gadolinium and they said his chances of having a reaction were all but impossible-again he went into shock and nearly died. He was given medication to make his heart race-a substitute for a treadmill test and he almost died again and had to be defibrillated because it caused him to go into ventricular tachycardia. Now his drs give him the lowest possible dose of any medication first and even then they instruct to cut that in half or even in 1/4 before administering. Physicians are pill happy-not all but they get perks for trying new medications on patients. I've researched this and found out that physicians are given tickets to the theaters, free dinners, invitations paid for to exoctic places for seminars to guinea pig their patients and provide feed back. The sad thing is the negative effects are under reported.if reported at all. One drug company spends millions a year getting doctors to pass out free samples. Be very wary of samples. Almost all prescriptions warn against usage by the elderly.
A younger, healthier patient can usually withstand side effects without too much trouble but they can be devastating to the elderly or an already weakened patient.
Menos daughter
The worst obstacle to getting help is doctors who throw up their hands, say "It is demntia and there is no cure," and go on to the next patient.
GOD for his dr...... we tried him on different meds for about a yr to find the right combo and dose... he is now on Seroquel (Quetiapine) and Haloperidol (Brand name: Haldol) the haloperidol 0.5mg he take 3 times a day and Seroquel he takes with diner this gives him some good sleep to where he isn't as bad with all of the anxiety and seeing all different things that are not there....
I do understand the feeling though. My mom is very difficult. "I want to go home!" (At home already.) Up and down, getting into everything, incontinent, belligerent, LIES, accuses people of horrible things...Thinks there are "Stacks of dead human bodies in the guest bedroom. Can't watch TV without thinking it is about her, all the actors are people she knows or the "bad" guys are out to get her.
Get help. Don't try to do it alone. Do you have kids?
Many family doctors, GPs, internists, etc. are just not in tune with improving quality of life for dementia patients. Geriatricians, or a geriatric psychiatrist, or a behavioral neurologist, tend to be more pro-active in treating symptoms. Would it be appropriate to change doctors or add a specialist at this point?
Good luck to you both!