I posted a note a few days ago that my spouse was having hallucinations. We are fortunate to have a close family member who is a neurologist specializing in AD and AD research at a major medical center. Just spoke with him.

He says that more common that hallucinations in AD are delayed or mixed up memories. Could be present or past.

He described hallucinations as the person either talking to or about someone or something that is right in front of them.

In either case medication would not be appropriate unless the person's behavior was effected ie: agitation, etc. My hubby is not bothered.

So, go along with, remind them is someone has passed away but do not argue. Wanted to pass this. I thought it was most helpful.

Whatever I call these episodes it is another thing to stay alert for!!! What a journey we are all on.
Linda G

Sometimes these mixed up memories become very fixed and destructive and the only solution is medication. My Mother became convinced that her favorite caregiver was doing crack cocaine - we think that she saw a news story on TV and mixed up the story in her mind. She became hostile and aggressive to this poor woman and no matter how much we denied it and told her that the CNAs all get random drug tested, she refused to let this woman near her. It became a nightmare, Mom was telling everyone that the aide was a drug addict and people believed her because she can cover so well and sound so logical (she is very well educated).

This was only one of several incidents and they impaired everyone's ability to help her and her roommate. After 2 months on Seroquel, all is forgotten and the mixed up stories/memories have been drastically reduced.

My dad is definitely hallucinating. We'll be alone in his room in the NH and he points and says "Who's that guy?" Since there is no guy I have a hard time answering. This just started recently - he's about 10 years into the disease, but has had a sharp downturn in the past year. The psychiatric nurse practitioner diagnosed him as hallucinating, but said since he's not bothered by what he's seeing (and sometimes hearing) there's no need for meds.

Linda,
My spouse always spoke of seeing his mother and a small boy. His mother has been gone about 25 years and the small boy (I assume is a son we lost over 30 years ago). He was never afraid of them and when he ask where they went and would just say I didn't know or that they must have left before I came into the room because I didn't get to see them. Since they didn't upset him, I saw no reason to medicate.
The only other people he saw was what he called "Those guys". They upset him and I had to tell him that they couldn't get in the house so they couldn't hurt him. He took my word for this and was ok.

If the hallucination don't bother him, just go along with what ever he says. Never try to convince him they aren't there because it will only upset him.

Very interesting discussion as I was just getting on to post something very similar with my Mom lately. For the past month she has been looking for 'the other dog' and there is not another one. She does have a dog, but she insists there is another one. This was just happening at night time after she would go to bed and she would get up and look for 'the dog'. But lately she is asking during the day. As I sit here it is 5:20 in the evening and we have both been sitting watching tv for about an hour-all of the sudden she asks where is that other dog that was in here? It easier to answer when she gets up at night because I just tell her she must have been dreaming, but when you are sitting in broad daylight its hard to explain.


She has also recently added a "person' that she is looking for. "The one that was just sitting in that chair" Don't know where that one went either.

This weekend I was sick in bed with a kidney infection (ouch) and she told my son that 3 women came in the house and went back to the bedroom without even talking to her and she became quite upset about them being back there and I was her daughter and she should have a say in taking care of me. I went to the ER that evening because of the pain-at that time I did not know that I had a kidney infection-and she told my aunt who came to stay with her the same story but one was a man this time, but again she was very upset about the whole thing and really became agitated about it mainly because she was not allowed to be in on making the decisions about my care.

My aunt took her to get a hamburger and she got over it.

Very intereting to me though.

My FIL was ex-Army. His hallucinations were always about WWII. One September he started to refuse his meals. It took a day or so but I got the reason out of him, slowly. He saw his whole regiment standing in the parking lot outside his window, 'Take my food and divide it up among my men, they shouldn't have to go hungry'. We had the hardest time getting him to eat until I hit on the idea of taking him to the hospital kitchen (explaining to them beforehand). I showed him all the equipment and the cooks and I all assured him that there was more than enough food for all his men, 'Just look at the size of these ovens, and this huge rice cooker! We can feed them all!' He finally began to eat after the third trip to the kitchen. He'd still ask at every meal if his men had something to eat, and I always told him that they'd all just had a big meal. Three weeks later it was over.

Then he started pointing to a Dr. he hadn't liked pre-AD and exclaiming 'There goes that meddling priest again!' but it didn't bother him, made him and us laugh, so we just left it at that. If we're going to be dealing with them anyway, thank god for the harmless hallucinations.