What medication is best for anxiety that happens mostly in evenings, maybe sundowning?

My mother was given the same drug, Ativan, as well so must be common to prescribe to elders to keep them calm. I take it for sleeplessness but do not use it regularly. If your mother gets out of bed inside the 4 hour effective period, she may be groggy. I usually stay lying down when I wake up for a minute or two and collect myself first. Another option would be to research herbal remedies as I know there are some out there that other folks have used for calming without groggy side effects.

Trazodone has worked wonders for my mom. Yes, trazodone is usually used as a sleeping aid but with people with Alzheimer’s and dementia it works differently .

My father takes Ativan 1mg. Twice a day and it doesn’t knock him out at all but definitely makes him more calm. I think everyone is different. When he was in rehab after surgery, they gave him higher dosage in the nursing home and that did knock him out. We used trazadone as a sleep aid for a long time and realized that he became very aggressive within minutes after taking it so we tapered off from 50mg to 25mg for a few days and then stopped it. The mood swings have mostly stopped, except for some sundowners which the Ativan seems very helpful for.

Bethmarie, I realize your post was a year ago and you may have come up with whatever you needed to help your husband. I hope so. My mother has dementia and has the same trouble with her sundowners setting in around noon and again around dinner/supper time. I noticed hers more often then not starts right after she eats. She also complains of being in pain. During my research the idea of bloating came up multiple times and I am going to ask the doctor about that possibility. I do know that pain can trigger an episode of anxiety and possibly sundowners. I also have learned that dementia patients pain can seem excessive compared to someone who does not have dementia. It's like bloating would be uncomfortable to me and I might whine about it a little but, to a dementia patient that uncomfortable feeling is like have a knife stuck in their gut. So, I have a call into the doctor to ask about this correlation and to see if there is anything we can do prior to eating to possibly prevent bloating. Beano does not work for me and I doubt that the doc will suggest that but, just thought I'd toss it in here just the same. If I can remember to come back to this page I will update with the doctors response.