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She is 89 and has had dimentia for 9yrs. Recent drs visit -All bloodwork is good, cat scan showed no stroke. Has been given meds for alergies, puts her to sleep but itching and crying come back the next day. Every cream and powder has been used. She takes antidepressant but had a bad reaction to higher dose. She didn't cry or itch on higher dose, but hallucinated, had tremors and trouble walking. This seems to be a problem with her neurological system. I don't know what else to try. Is this something she is going to have to just live with ? Might a neurologist be able to help?

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Has she be checked for Shingles?
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She does not have shingles. There are no rashes, bumps or any marks other than the ones she causes by scratching. Often when I ask her why she is crying, she says she doesn 't know.
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Maxcat, I was reading about itching the other day. There are several potential causes. One is that there is neuropathy or damage to a certain areas of the brain. Instead of feeling pain that we normally associate with neuropathy, the person itches. If the one antidepressant did not agree with her, another might. I hope you can find something that brings relief. And try to do things to keep her from scratching. In the case of my mother, scratching made things worse.

You may want to google itching in the elderly to see if you can come up with some more ideas. This is such a common problem for elders. There are many things that may help. Finding the right thing is the hard part -- the nervous system is so complex.
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BTW, does she itch only in certain areas, or is it over her entire body?
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She seems to be itching in areas that are affected by her body heat while sleeping. When she awakens, these are the worse areas that she will scratch and scratch for hours as she crys. It's almost as if she is allergic to her own body heat.
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I have recurrent shingles and the pain and itching is most severe when there is no evidence of rash or redness. She could just have post herpetic pain and itching. Don't let up, it sounds like she is very uncomfortable. Have they done cultures? My MIL had some weird bacterial/fungal skin stuff along with a newly acquired allergy to a med she had been on for years. So many possibilities.
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