Help. My Mom was charming, alert, but in obvious early stages of AD. We moved her to assisted living because Dad also has AD and we needed a solution for both. Shortly after arrival, he thrived, and she tanked. Became agitated, angry, violent. AL sent her to nursinghome..ativan, depakote, wellbutrin, and now abilify, plus remeron...she is now hallucinating, thinking I'm her mom. 8 weeks ago we moved my parents together because of my Dad's AD. Can AD progress so quickly, just because of the stress of a move?

Has anyone here simply yanked their LO out of an AL, "de-toxed" their LO, and seen how their LO did w/ no meds?

I'm distraught and feel like we destroyed whatever dignity my Mom had..we didn't keep them in the home because of the stress we thought my Mom had over caring for my Dad. am feeling so horrible.

Dear Katy: I am so sorry for what is happening. You were doing the very best for your parents and their quality of life. I understand you are feeling horrible, but there was no way you could have anticipated this happening.

You are a loving daughter and a terrific advocate for your parents and they are indeed fortunate to have you by their side.

Any abrupt change in condition needs to be medically evaluated asap. This is best done by the experts in the field and with a complete workup from both a physical and neurological standpoint.

The gold standard for such evaluation and prescribing is Neurology. If you have a good Neurologist who sees dementia patients as a routine part of his/her practice, that is the place to go. If you don't have one, this is the time to go that direction.

Your mother per your writing is in the very early stages of her disease. Therefore; this abrupt change takes on increased significance. Change doesn't come easily with this disease and having her residence changed may have impacted upon her behaviors; however, the change has been so overwhelmingly profound, abrupt and constant, that I think a full medical/neuro workup is warranted.

Sometimes, our loved ones, especially females, develop "silent" urinary tract infections. These UTIs are called silent because there are no to few signs of the UTI. No pain, burning, frequncy; just a deep alteration in behavior, cognition and function. ALWAYS have the urine checked. Once treated with abx, the person usually returns to usual baseline function.

You are now in that limbo with a poly-pharmocology effect. Your mother is on multiple very strong medications which can interact with one another and may even be some of the causality for what you are seeing happen.

BUT - DO NOT STOP THE MEDICATIONS COLD TURKEY. Best approach would be to get her to the doctor asap. Try to have this be Neuro. A complete workup is warranted, then have him/her taper the meds that are deemed appropriate to stop and see where this goes.

You are doing the right thing by taking a close look on what has been occurring. Just don't stop the meds arbitrarily - do it under the guidance of the physician on the prescribed time schedule.

I sincerely wish you the very best outcome with your dear mother. Please let us know how everything is going and how you are doing. We are here for you and will be thinking about you.

Johanna C.

quote:

Has anyone here simply yanked their LO out of an AL, "de-toxed" their LO, and seen how their LO did w/ no meds?

Katy, I"m so sorry this is happening to you. Sounds similar to our situation, although they kicked her out of an Alzheimer's "Care" facility because of her violence. And, as the wise Johanna has pointed out, any abrupt change in attitude may likely be a raging UTI, as it was for my wife.
Now, to address "detoxifying". Yes, after getting my wife back home, I gradually pulled her off the depakote, haldol, aricept, namenda, and finally zoloft, and she improved remarkably. Her violence ceased, but her recognition and cognition were gone and have not returned. That was 3 years ago.

My best suggestion is the same as Johanna's. Immediately get her to a neuro and do a UTI check FIRST! THen ask if she might not benefit from being removed from these powerful and often very nasty meds.

Sam

My mother has also been kicked out of dementia only homes. Even an SNF won't take her due to her violent and non-compliant behavior. As of yesterday, she was finally doing a bit better (she's in the hospital). Only one day, so I don't want to get my hopes up. The big difference is that she was taken off all Alzheimer's meds. She's still on the Seroquel and the Depakote. I forgot to ask if they added an antidepressant. Of course I can't get my hopes up with just one day, but we shall see.

Each move makes my mother very agitated. It could have been the move for your mother, or as other people stated it could be a UTI.

Here's another question for you. Were all of those meds started at the same time? That's an awful lot. My mother was started on the smallest doses, only one med at a time. With dementia patients, the meds needed to be started SLOWLY!!!!! Reactions to the meds need to be noted, people can have very different and bad reactions, especially the elderly.

Someone JUST gave me a magazine ad for Abilify, thinking it might help my LO. They didn't read it though because it stated very clearly that it was absolutely NOT for people with dementia.

Maybe you could start by looking into that?

Teri

Just to update - I was wrong. My mother is still on the same med cocktail as before, AD meds and all. She (as of yesterday) is suddenly doing better. Of course it could be just a phase where she is doing better and then she'll crash again. Point is, it could take awhile for the meds to kick in and then stabilize. Some of the side effects might be temporary.

quote:

Someone JUST gave me a magazine ad for Abilify, thinking it might help my LO. They didn't read it though because it stated very clearly that it was absolutely NOT for people with dementia. Maybe you could start by looking into that?
Teri

Teri, that black box warning is on all the new generation anti-psychotics. The increase in death risk is roughly a 2% or so actual increase. My Seroquel, similar to Abilify, is the reason I can stay at home. That's worth a 2% increased risk to me.

Since I already have a terminal illness, 2% increased risk is laughable to me. However, I wouldn't condemn anyone who made an informed decision to not take it.

Oh Katy,,,I'm so sorry. It may have been better if you found a good ALF for your Dad,,but perhaps your Mother simply wasn't ready to move to a new strange place. Its very common for a LO to suddenly get massively confused and agitated in a new surrounding.

And get your Mom to hell out of that NH,,,if she is early stage,,they will only make things worse by drugging her with the "big gun drugs" that they have her on now.

Is it possible for your Mother to come and live with you? If you work,,you could hire someone to come in as a companion/cook for your Mom while your work,,or,,you could even check into a nice adult daycare,,which we always refer to it as the Senior Social club.

How do you feel that the care being provided for your Dad ,,is? Yes,,AD will continue to march on,,,this we know. Try your best to keep your Mom as active as possible,,,get her off of those drugs,,and never allow your Dad to get sent over to that NH.

I wish you alot of strength to get thru all of this,,I know how heartbreaking and exhausting this all must be for you. Please keep us updated on things. Peace

Thank you everyone...My mother is now at Copper Ridge Institute in MAryland, run by Johns Hopkins. Her drugs are now: Abilify, Remeron and Adivan-as needed. As soon as the Wellbutrin was stopped the hallucinations stopped. I'm not sure if we'll ever be able to get her back to where she was 8 weeks ago...perhaps the damage has been done. We'll have assessment on Friday and then need to decide where to go next. The original ALF will probably not take her back. I'm even looking into buying a house and hiring an aide. Anyone want to go in on it with me? only half joking!!! Monmouth County!

Katy B - ME ME ME! I wish I could find a home for just dementia patients. Yes, I know they do exist, but they are still a bit too big for my mother and the ones that I have seen have stairs. I would love a home with just four or five residents and round the clock care. My mother is in New Jersey.

I know of just such a place in maryland. My mom was there for just under a year until she died in august. It has room for a max of 5 or 6 people and they were incredible with my mom (after the adjustment). It got to the point where she only needed occasional ativan because she was with the same people and caregivers all of the time (and because the disease advanced). It is called good samaritan and I found it thr the alz.org using the housing search feature.

Just to let you know. I moved home from out of state almost 3 years ago. We brought my mom home, thinking I could take care of her, from an ALF. She is now in a private AD home with 4 other AD women and is stage 6+.

When we brought her home, she went downhill quickly. Within 2 months she went from talking-repeating endlessly- and walking to shuffling and making no sense (Talking gibberish, delusional, hallucinating) and incontinent.
Although it could be a UTI and I would certainly have her checked, this disease can escalate in a short time.

I will look through the Alz. org site again. Unfortunately the ones I have found that seem really good have up to 15 residents, plus daycare. That's waaaaaaay too overstimulating for my mother.