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Drug prescribed many years ago and the current doctor said at her age -84 will be impossible to get off this drug. She can't deal with much anymore and I know this drug has contributed to that. I don't know how she functions on taking it 3 times a day.

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she would have to be taking the maximum dosage for at least three months. check to see how many are being prescribed each month and what the dosage is. I think it's really irresponsible of a practitioner to prescribe that much to an elderly person, they become such a fall risk. I hope she knows she can't have any alcohol or other drugs that would potentiate the benzo, it could suppress her respiration to a dangerous point. No cold medicines either, people die that way
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My mom is 85 and she is addicted to hydrocone. She had a bad back surgery and goes to pain management. Over the past 2 months she has been coming up short on her medication before it was time to see the doctor at the end of the month. At first I thought someone from the AL was stealing them, so we kept them at my house and I only gave a week at a time. Then she started calling me on Weds or Thurs saying she was running out of pills. We even went to the Emergency Room one time because she ran out of pills. They would only give her one pill and that was it. So finally I turned to the AL and let them give her the pills. They are strict and only give them once every 6 hours as they are supposed to. It was a loss of independence for my mom, but I felt it was my only alternative. She is really giving me heck about it and saying " I hate her" and all
As for getting her off them I think hell will freeze over first. Sorry not much help, but I sympathize your situation.
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On the other hand, I had to fly 2500 miles to force the doc to give my mother her anti-anxiety drugs, her anti-psychotics, etc. My mother was in full blown psychosis, hsyterical, anxious, not sleeping, hallucinating audio and visual, and my family that put her in NH pretended my mother had no psych history, as "they do not believe in mental illness". At the NH Mom is in, they are handing out the drugs, monitoring her, and it is very easy to tell how paranoid, anxious and shaking-terrified she is...not to mention the dogs slobbering at her door all night and cats being tortured, machinary running up and down her walls, etc. But Mom was only calling me, 20-50 times a day and refused to admit problems to her docs, since she is dependent on family that insists she does all this for attention, since "mental illness doesnt exist". Today, even tho she is on her drugs, she was given some sort of mental testing, and is convinced that they are grooming her for a managerial position at the NH, she is complaining that she is 80 years old and isnt allowed to work, so why do they keep bothering her with all the mental testing? Of course, family is trying to get her declared...so they can step in, sell her home, skim her money off the top (NH is going to get it all anyway, they say) and finally change all her life ins beneficiaries and will to leave themselves and their kids my Moms money. You cant convince my mother to take care of herself, and the family grabbed the power when she was hospitalized briefly. So I would like a lorazapam myself. I have been on it PRN for 15 years, it works great, I highly recommend it, if taken as needed rather than as a matter of course. Another helpful anti-anxiety is the beta blocker propranalol. Night time terrors are treated well (for me) with Prazosin. Perhaps any of those can help break the ativan/loraz dependency, but there is nothing wrong with taking those drugs, 0.5 PRN, they just wont give them easily at a NH, as they are considered sedating, and they arent allowed to sedate, at least where my mom is!
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My mom was addicted to Lorazepam. She was taking it up to five times a day. She had been prescribed it by her family doctor to take it twice a day. There were times when I thought she was so out of it. Just by chance I found she had a stash of Lorazepam that had been prescribed to my dad before he passed away. We had some scares while she was taking it - fire department coming and she slept right through the alarm going off. Thank goodness nothing bad happened but a cast iron frying pan destroyed. So her doctor when learning this changed her prescription to Clonazepam and the night mare of addiction continued. It is tough because your mom is 84 and mine will be 81 in August. She has been off the clonazepam for 70 days now and sometimes I wonder if that was the right thing to do. She was so sedated though on the pills and often I had such trouble waking her up. She physically is better now but her mental state is always wanting a pill.
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It can also cause memory loss and a false positive for some other drugs if tested.  The amnesia is different from dementia.  I'm sorry this has happened, but rely on doctor who knows her for any cutting back.  It is hard enough for younger people.
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A decade or more ago, I got addicted to a similar drug, actually a tranquiliser being used as a sleeping tablet. I came off it cold turkey, and it was really horrible for just over two weeks. It felt like permanent round the clock serious jet lag. I now don’t take any sleeping stuff for more than three nights at a time. It may not be worth making your mother so uncomfortable. If you try cutting it down, do it gradually and watch how she goes. Yours, Margaret
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My mom is addicted to hydrocodone and opiod. She started running out of pills before her next doctors visit. After 3 times of this, I finally asked the Assisted Living to take over her pills. Boy is she mad at me. I wanted the assisted living to take over all the medications, but we finally agreed just to let them be in charge of the narcotic. She is hardly speaking to me and accused me of trying to be her mother. She does not like the fact that I am in charge now.
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I am assuming she uses it for anxiety? Can he cut back her use?
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