My mom has been in a nursing home for over eighteen months for signs of early dementia. She had a bit of a crisis at some point and was moved to another part of the nursing home, while she was put on risperdal. She generally hated the new place. Suddenlty she needed to use a wheelchair, her speech was slurred, and they eased off on the medication. She then got panic attacks, started wandering and was delusional (people at night coming to beat her up with a stick). They moved her back to the first building and she seemed happy at first then got angry and threatened staff. She keeps wandering - oh, and she loves lifting papers and small objects from whatever room she happens to be in, so that can get her in trouble. They have adjusted her treatment again, but the doctor now tells me that she is mostly suffering from depression and speaks of her condition as partly reversible with the adequate medication. I just want to know if this makes any sense to any of you - to me the dementia is just getting worse, and I would like to know what to prepare for. Thanks for reading.
What I do now to avoid the sometimes routine practice of medical personnel prescribing them is to list psychotropics as drugs to which my father had reactions and side effects. That's stopped the use completely.
He is a strong person, though and doesn't even take pain meds unless it's after surgery.
I'm also wondering if your mother has had UTIs - they can cause a temporary change in behavior.
You have gotten good advice though on seeing a neurologist to find out what, if anything, is going on.
It may be that there's just been too much change and disruption to her everyday routine and she's not able to get back to her baseline; new and changing meds don't help the situation. While that may seem simple, for older folks it can really upset their equilibrium.
This isn't a solution, but I always try to integrate natural methods of calming someone (including myself!) - music and pet therapy, relaxation and just talking - sometimes things like this can help return someone to a baseline more effectively, unless there are significant mental or health issues that are well beyond that.
At one nursing home in which my mother recovered, the staff had instituted gardening therapy. There was an assistive gardening bed outside on a small patio. Patients could weed sitting down. I don't recall what plants were there, but if I ever were in a position to create one I would have a lot of fragrant and butterfly loving flowers. Sometimes just having a beautiful little butterfly flitting around can create a sense of momentary calm.
But at least try the natural therapies; if the facility has pet therapy, make sure your mother has a change to participate. Same with music. Then watch to see if her behavior seems to return to more or less normal after these nonmedical interventions.
Good luck; I hope you can find some safe solutions, quickly.
Jocelyne it is great that you are taking such good care of your mother - I often think that my mother's life would be very different if I took her with me, and I feel guilty about not doing so. However every time I spent a few days with her we would always end up bickering savagely - I felt constantly taunted and hurt. I am not a nice daughter.
It turned out not to be an infection...just runny bowels....he is fine now...(other than the Alzheimer, which is enough to handle)....Thanks, marymember