Psychotic episode and a few other things

May 31, 2012

Today, when I arrived at my parents' house, my father was sitting alone on the

sofa, in his pyjamas and his whole body was shaking. I asked what was wrong and

he said, in a really angry tone " She's a liar! " . I knew straight away he was

referring to Mum because I'd seen this a couple of times previously, though not

for a while.

Dad found it difficult to articulate what it was he was upset about so I found

Mum in the bedroom and asked her. She wasn't quite sure either but said that he

was refusing to get dressed and have breakfast and that he'd called her many

things for the past couple of hours.

I tried for around 30 minutes to find out why Dad was angry. He kept referring

to Mum having slammed the hall door but Mum said she just closed it to keep the

warmth in the main part of the house but she hadn't slammed anything. At one

point, Dad said " She's been listening to them " . He was convinced Mum was working

against him so I reminded him that Mum is there for him every day and that we

are doing everything we can to keep him at home, rather than in a nursing home.

After another hour or so, I could tell he was coming out of his distressed state

- he accepted a glass of water and a blanket and instead of seeming so angry, he

was yawning. This came shortly after I told Dad that I thought the reason he

felt so bad is because of his illness. He asked (still in an angry tone) " Do you

think so? " . I think, in some strange way, that somehow gave him a reason for the

confusion and anger he was feeling.

I felt so helpless because when Dad is in this state, even I can't get him out

of it. Mum was crying and said she didn't know what else to do.

I spoke to Dad's doctor (just his general practitioner) and he said in that

instance, Dad needs to be medicated. I told him Dad had a bad reaction to

Seroquel which is the only thing we had tried.

What do we do in this situation, which I suspect will become a more frequent

occurrence? Should we try him on something that will make him sleepy (eg.

Valium), do we call an ambulance (not preferable since they would want to take

him to hospital which would only make things worse)? Do we just wait it out like

we did today until he calms down and gets through the episode? It was so

heartbreaking - he swung between fits of anger, fits of laughter, looking like

he was going to cry.

If anyone has any experience or advice, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks.

Tania....

(daughter of Barry, 78 yrs, dx with PD 2010, then LBD in 2011, then PDD in 2012)

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