People with Lewy body dementia in particular may be worse on this class of medication, either motor or cognitively. Sometimes they are very helpful and reasonably well tolerated though. Increasing the dose to see if she does better or worse on it may be the only way to really tell anything and is not an unreasonable thing to try. If it makes her worse though, clearly, after allowing for the usual ups and downs anyone can have, probably don't go up any more on it and see if they would try a different approach altogether. Side effects are a tricky business. Some people get hallucinations on suprisingly common and usually benign medications, and older people may get side effects on meds they used to tolerate as well.
I do not live in the same town; my brother, who lives with her, says she is getting it, but I do think it is difficult for him to be consistent with her. The doctor recently doubled her dosage.
Hey - what is Ludatol? Dr. Google does not seem to know. Maybe it is making her worse...Remember, just being "aware" and recognizing people does NOT rule out dementia, particularly non-Alzhemier's dementia. Something is not right here, and it may well be the diagnosis and treatment.
If your mom has been diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer's she probably won't be allowed to sign a POA any more. That is something that needs to be done before a person deteriorates to the point that your mother seems to be at. If she's anything like my dad, she probably wouldn't be able to sign her name anyway, or understand what the attorney explains to her. It sounds like her GP did the proper thing in sending her to a specialist...someone who knows the disease inside and out. I would say that perhaps a change in meds might help her out; sometimes you have to try out a few before you find one that helps to any degree, and most don't work anymore beyond a certain point. Some don't work to begin with; it just depends on the person. It sounds like she needs someone with her all the time; but unless she's declared incompetent I wouldn't think there's anything you can do unless she hurts herself or someone else.
Good questions, JeanneGibbs. She won't sign DPOA, for one. She won't allow others to come in to help...it's difficult to get her to the doctor. In hospital for heart palps, she up and left. She recently carried a knife under her sleeve, has roamed, and doesn't eat. Her vision also is very poor--legally blind. But, she is aware enough to refuse help!
A declaration of incompetency must be done by a court, usually on the advice of two doctors. Do her doctors think she is incompetent? If she is declared incompetent would you then want to be appointed her guardian, to make care decisions for her?
When you say she refuses care, do you mean that she won't allow someone to come into the house to help her? What tactics had you tried?
Do you feel she is at a point where she cannot safely live alone, even with help?
She has had memory issues for a few years. She began getting paranoid about a year and a half ago. Since December the deterioration has been rapid; her hallucinations started and then became FT about two months ago. Her GP was no help - he gave her brain scans and blood tests but sent her to a specialist to do the diagnosis. They are giving her Ludatol, for schizophrenia that is not dementia-related but it has had no effect.
Had she already been diagnosed with Alzheimer's prior to receiving the diagnosis of "advanced" Alzheimer's? There must have been some previous evidence of dementia, as I don't think someone would suddenly be diagnosed as advanced, unless she hadn't been seeing a doctor on a regular basis. My dad hallucinates with his AD, but he was diagnosed about 5 years ago, and is probably in the upper mid stages of the disease. If this was a sudden diagnosis, and she has been seeing a doctor on a regular basis, I would try to get more tests run to find out if it might be something else, or get a second opinion!
Maybe it's a misdiagnosis! When did it start? What is she taking? " otherwise she is fairly lucid?" Something is not right. Did you take her to a geriatric psychiatrist? Maybe she has some other mental disorder. Can you explain more?
When you say she refuses care, do you mean that she won't allow someone to come into the house to help her? What tactics had you tried?
Do you feel she is at a point where she cannot safely live alone, even with help?