Lady gets violent and yells. Any ideas to calm her down?

When someone with Alzheimer's becomes combative the best thing to do is walk away if possible (if the person can be left alone for a few minutes) then come back a few minutes later when the person has settled down. Don't mention the outburst and carry on as usual. It does no good trying to get the person to calm down when they're being combative, it can just make them more agitated and you put yourself at risk for being punched in the face.

If this lady is in bed with the rails up your friend is right to just walk away until the episode is over. Go back a few minutes later, see if the lady is calmer, then pretend like nothing happened. Giving her a box to rummage through is fine if your friend doesn't mind picking everything up after the box is thrown onto the floor but there is little that can be done when someone with Alzheimer's becomes combative except wait it out.

If this behavior continues someone might want to speak to this lady's Dr. to see if there's medication he can prescribe to keep these outbursts at a minimum. They're exhausting and upsetting to the person with Alzheimer's and upsetting to the person caring for someone with combativeness related to Alzheimer's.

In every single instance, whether the lady is in bed or not, the caregiver should walk away and out of the room immediately. My mother is immobile but can become combative at any time and in order to prevent myself from engaging in an argument I just walk out of the room. Fortunately, she can't follow me, which may be a situation that your friend doesn't find herself in. However, even if I leave the room for just a couple of minutes, it's enough for the mood to pass and often when I return after literally a minute or so, my mum will be smiling and have forgotten the problem. This is a much bigger problem for the caregiver than the cared for.

let the patient have control over circumstances or at least the illusion of being in control. everybody gets agitated when control is taken away from them..

Watch Teepa Snow on U-tube. She is the best educator in this field.

Dementia patients at Beatitudes are allowed practically anything that brings comfort, even an alcoholic “nip at night,” said Tena Alonzo, director of research. “Whatever your vice is, we’re your folks,” she said.

Once, Ms. Alonzo said: “The state tried to cite us for having chocolate on the nursing chart. They were like, ‘It’s not a medication.’ Yes, it is. It’s better than Xanax.”

My husband used to be very violent. Then, I realized he could not talk well, he could not write well, he could not see well…he had been hiding his disabilities for a quite a while. He has no longer such strength to be violent, but still shows some discomfortableness in different ways. When his blood glucose is high, he becomes grumpy. When he is in pain, he is reluctant to do exercise and sometimes even agitated. When he wants to go to a restroom in a public place and I am not with him, he starts so-called “wondering”. When a baby cries, everyone wants to find out why, and take care of the problems…Imagine, someone, like my husband who has only limited abilities left, tries to do something with great difficulty and needs help, or to say something with no correct words come out of his tongue, to get rid of something that is not comfortable, etc. I hope her lady is not the case like my husband.

Agree with Pam totally. Chocolate is just about like Prozac for raising your serotonin levels. I can just feel mine go up when I get some good stuff myself :-)... I've learned do whole meals of low to non-fat chocolate items (chocolate almond milk, with cocoa flavored cereal, diet hot chocolate, and a chocolate diet bar or pudding seems about the right amount) when I need it and haven't needed to take an SSRI in many, many years despite a history of major depression with a terrific family history of depression and anxiety. And if you are at a place that won't allow alcohol or you can't get good chocolate dosed regularly, try other "brain food" type of stuff like mannose-containing fruits and juices (apple, cranberry) and coconut or anything else with medium chain triglycerides. There have been small studies on those things that were at least somewhat positive, and suprisingly positive for cocoa products and cognition recently. I used to make sure Mom had her sugar free chocolate in her candy dish within reach, and she would make sure she got it every night, with or without help from me or from staff. They make a "medical food" called Axona but it is probably too pricey and hard to get covered for a lot of people.

Thats funny, how much chocolate? Doesnt it have to be like 70% cocoa or something?

Yes, dark chocolate, like semi-sweet chips, is better than milk chocolate.

Unclear, but I will probably keep experimenting until I'm sure of my own optimum dose.

Seriously, here's the abstract for this at least: www.neurology.org/content/early/2013/08/07/WNL.0b013e3182a351aa.abstract. I know this sounds like something made up for laughs, but actually, something in the cacao bean is very good for us human brain owners. And it does not have to be mixed with loads of bad fats in order to be helpful or palatable, fortunately for folks like me.