LBD Meds

[Guest guest]

Hi all!

I have not visited this group for quite some time as I've been without internet

access and lost my Yahoo password.

Since my last visit I have been kept very busy taking care of my mom's affairs

and have been having my own health issues with Meniere's disease.

My mom was diagnosed in 2008 with moderate stage Lewy body dementia although I

had seen changes in her at least 7-8 years earlier. She had an excellent

gerontologist who was well-trained in this disease and actually also taught at a

well known medical school here in Nova Scotia, Canada. Unfortunately, she was

over-worked and was not given the help she had asked for from hospital

management and was forced to move her practice to another province the following

year.

At this time my mom was placed on a 5 mg dose of Aricept once daily and dosed

slowly up to 125 mg of Seroquel two 25mg doses in the morning and three 25mg

doses at night to deal with troublesome hallucinations. There was no further

follow-up except from her family doctor who had little knowledge of the disease.

She was placed in a nursing home in December of 2010, a choice she had asked for

if ever she were to become incapacitated to the point where she could no longer

look after herself.

She is now being seen by a general practitioner who visits the nursing home to

see her. He has taken her off the Aricept (in Nova Scotia a patient must pass

certain cognitive tests before medicare will pay for it) saying it was no longer

doing her any good. I was not consulted and because my mom was getting up

through the night and walking around he also ordered a 50 mg dose of Trazadone

for her.

Now my observation when I go to visit her is that she may be asleep at the lunch

table or on another resident's bed early in the day. My feeling is that she is

being over-medicated with these two drugs and seems tired most of the time.

I am going to have a consultation with this doctor hopefully this week (he has

been on vacation the two times I called him this month). I would like for him to

dose her off the Seroquel as she is no longer having hallucinations but I think

she should have been kept on the Aricept as I find her memory seems far worse

now than when she was taking it. Also Seroquel is not approved by the FDA in

Canada for dementia in the elderly and has possible dangerous side effects.

Anybody here who could enlighten me on the subject would be a great help to me.