Seroquel drug for dementia person's angry behavior in an assisted living facility?

Seroquel is NOT for anyone, especially dementia patients. I did the research and I invite you to do it, too. Yes, caregivers know best. They see everything. The negative side effects can be devastating and cause prolonged grogginess and/or tremors. I hope you do the research, have a competent doctors who specializes in geriatrics, and stay away from anti-psychotics. Other meds may help, such as anti-anxiety meds and antidepressants. All the best to everyone dealing with this.

Baclofen is a good alternative med for hiccups or hiccoughs however you like to spell it. Not everyone has heard of this. Like every other drug we have discussed on here, there is side effect potential, and YMMV.

Baclofen was pretty effective, vstefans, in the early days, but by the time he developed dementia it wasn't working anymore. Then Gabapentin was tried, but that didn't do anything for hiccups. (Worked great for my sciatica, though, so the pills weren't wasted.)

My mother (87yrs old) with moderate to severe dementia, has been taking 12.5mg of Seroquel once at bedtime for 7 days. It has seemed to improve her mood & energy level (and earlier her sleep). Today she struck her caregiver while being bathed. Could this one incident/level of combativeness be a result of the cumulative effect of the Seroquel -or- is this a different manifestation of her dementia? We are wondering if an increase in the drug -or- it's stopping would change this?

Probably not - she may just NOT have wanted the bath. Seroquel can have side effects but more commonly motor in nature rather than crankiness, but if you increase the dose and she's even worse, it's possibly a bad drug for her. Side effects happen unpredictably. It is not always easy to sort out.

Randy I would want to see the aide in action before I blamed to patient for lashing out. It is possible the caregiver did something mom found unpleasand even though the caregiver knew it was necessary or she was just hurried or handled roughly.
Seroquil can be very effective for individual patients or it can have nasty side effects so once again it is trial and error

Can Seroquel by crushed? geriatrician has prescribed for my 65 years old husband he has frontal lobe young onset of dementia and will not swollen tablets.
Thank you

Seroquil XR (extended release) must not be crushed. Look up the medication on Drugs and you will see it is not approved for use in patients with dementia and can have some very nasty side effects. Question the geriatition about the wisdom of prescribing this medication for your husband who is only 65 and could survive for many years. Get a second opinion if you do not like the answers you recieve. you could also have a talk with the pharmacist first and get his opinion.

@secretsistergiveahug ,
I agree about finding out what was causing the behavior. Today is the first time I ever realized it!!!
My mother in law was chugging down her soda (1/3rd bottle) so fast just because she wanted a new bottle (20 oz). It got so bad that we took her off of soda and gave her flavored waters.
Well 2 months later she decided to grab my 2 liter of Pepsi out of the fridge and drink straight out of the bottle sneaking. Then we started noticing her grabbing our cups and sneaking a sip when she thought we weren't paying attention.
So today I thought to myself, she must be craving soda! I was at the store and thought maybe a 12 pack of caffeine free soda like Sprite might not be bad. So I bought it for her.
I brought her in the kitchen and said lets make a deal, don't drink our drinks or out of the 2 liter anymore and I will give you 1 Sprite a day. She was thrilled like a little kid who just got her best birthday present.
I never tried to take things away but she was being OCD about her soda in the past and taking it to such an extreme that it wasn't healthy for her. Just like when she smoked cigarettes and had 3 burning in her hands at the same time lol.

I could not care for my husband if it were not taking seroquel. His behavior is manageable with it. Its obvious he needs it and the assisted care facilities he has been in for rehab even have increased it because of him acting out.

My 64 yr old husband was diagnose with Alzheimer 6 yrs ago,and I have been his caretaker ever since .This past 4 months his behaviour have change to aggressiveness , severe anxiety,with paranoia.We were referred to a Psychiatrist and started on Xanax.25mg and have been increasing that to 5mg 4x a day. It does help calm him down.But how long would I be giving that the Md has added Seroquel 5mg to start 25mg nightlly and has been increasing that as well ,Now we are on 50 mg 4x a day, and have not seen any changes. The anxiety and aggressiveness comes in every3-4 hrs in the daytime, Its been 3 weeks now, Should I give more time? or ask his doctor for a change of med?I have never been in an Alzheimer group before, but as I read all these comments and news feed I realize I am not alone am going thru difficult time. We have been married 35 years , he is a very warm , very helpful man all his life and to see him like this is truly hearbreaking .....despirate wife

mondocjaf, I'm not sure I'm following how much of what your husband is now taking, but I think I'd keep following doctor directions until you've reached the therapeutic level and been at it a few weeks. If it still doesn't solve the issues, then it may be time to discuss changes with the doctor.

When you start with a very low dose, that is typically to make sure the body doesn't have a bad reaction from it. Often there is no expectation that the low dose will solve the problem. That's why I'd see it through until the dose is where the doctor wants it to be.

But I also don't think someone should stay on a drug indefinitely when it clearly isn't doing any good. Give it a little more time, but not forever!

My mom is 91 and also has Alzheimer. Its been about 8 years now and I her daughter an her care giver. she is only on 5mg of Aricept and 12.5 of serequil. lately her sundowners has been very bad for 3 hours she and I are super anxious....me because I don't know how to help her. Her Dr now wants her on a low dose of Ativan and remove the seriquil. Can you just stop taking seriquil? he says yes but I'm worried. What will the Ativan do?