Re: [LBDcaregivers) Jan and All - Ativan

[Guest guest]

Jan said:

I am so sorry to hear about your mom. Sometimes if an LBD patient is ever given

Ativan it

has an opposite effect for a person with LBD than what it was meant to do, and

has

an adverse effect. It can cause aggressive behavior problems that sometimes will

never

get better, because LBD patients can also be sensitive to Ativan. This is

exactly what happened with my dad. He was never the same after the Ativan. I

didn't belong to this group, or any group for that matter, when my dad was

diagnosed with LBD. Once I joined the group in January 2002 and saw the topic

of Ativan I quickly contacted dad's neurologist and had the Ativan tapered and

stopped. My dad struggled with strong behaviorial issues and his hallucinations

must have been extremely scary to him. I believe it was the Ativan that lead to

my dad's sudden decline and death. This, of course, is my story and not every

one reacts the same with medications. Happy belated birthday Jan. Also, was

thinking of you on the 22nd. Sent up special prayers for you. SandieDes

Moines, IAdad, Merle, passed from LBD 9-20-02, age 65 ---------- Original

Message ----------

To: " LBDcaregivers " <LBDcaregivers >

Subject: Re: New member my mother has LBD and Im struggling with

decisions

Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:35:17 -0800 (PST)

Hi Sherry,

I am so sorry to hear about your mom. Sometimes if an LBD patient is ever given

Ativan it has an opposite effect for a person with LBD than what it was meant to

do, and has an & #65533;adverse effect. It can cause aggressive behavior problems

that sometimes will never get better, because & #65533;LBD patients can also be

sensitive to Ativan. Do you know if your mom was ever given Ativan? You are

right about LBD patients being sensitive to Antipsychotics. LBDers & #65533;can be

sensitive to many medications, and although not everyone will be effected the

same way by a medication, most are sensitive to Antipsychotics such as Haldol,

but Seroquel by most LBDers, but not all, & #65533;seems to work ok.

I don't know about the electro shock therapy, my husband didn't have experience

with that.

I just wanted to warn you about the Ativan and if your mom has had that. I know

some LBDers take Ativan with no problem, but & #65533; I have heard of those that

had adverse side effects with it in this group and have been kicked out of

nursing homes because they were given that medication and became very

aggressive. If your mom was given a cocktail of various medications instead of

antipsychotics that may have been one of the medications included in the

cocktail and she may have had an adverse reaction to it. From what I have read

it never gets better after the adverse side effect from that medication. I am

sorry to tell you this and I hope that this was not one of the medications given

to her, but I just wanted to warn you about this medication for LBDers.

You have your hands full with a 12 year old and a baby, it is stressful to deal

with this disease to begin with let alone having kids to care for too. I hope

you are getting more help than just you taking all this on. Your health is

important too!

I hope you can find some answers here to help you.

Jan Colello, San Francisco Bay Area, East Bay

Husband, Jim, dx w/LBD 2003

Deceased, January 2011

________________________________

To: LBDcaregivers

Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 7:23 PM

Subject: New member my mother has LBD and Im struggling with

decisions

Hello,

My name is Sherry and I am 32. I have never joined a support group or

any online chat rooms so I hope that I am doing this correctly. I hope

that someone can help me with the situation my mother is in and find

some support as well.

This is a little long but here is some of my story.

I am the guardian of my mother who just turned 66. She was diagnosed

with Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2008 but the symptoms were

pretty bad then since she had not taken any meds for it so she had it

well before 2008. Her husband decided to divorce her when we found out

her diagnosis so that is why I became her guardian and soon after her

care giver as well. & #65533; Its been a loooonnnng road and I finally had to

put her in a nursing facility in the memory care unit. She has been

there since March of 2011 and at first she loved it. She has struggled

with paranoia (people stealing her things) since living with me and

had been taking seroquel. The paranoia seemed to go away when she got

to nursing home but it came back when she got used to being there.

Soon the seroquel stopped working and seemed to give her a side affect

the psychiatrist called EPS (it made her become rigid and lean) They

decided to try a different antipsychotic med only this gave her EPS

again. They tried another and in the mean time she stopped thinking

people were stealing her things and moved on to seeing people that

were not really there. They have now diagnosed her with LBD. She has

gotten really bad with the physcosis and they have tried all of the

anitipsychotic meds about 5 or 6 of them and they all cause the same

side affect. Apparently people with LBD are very sensitive to

anitipsychotic meds. They tried another cocktail of meds that did not

include antipsychotics but that worked only for a short time before

the psychosis became bad. She is now in a behavorial center so she she

can be monitored every day by a psychiatrist but he said the only

thing left is ECT electro shock therepy but she has to be approved by

another doctor to see if she is even a canidate for it. I keep

thinking this is so hard to figure out and deal with but whats even

worse is my poor mom having to deal with the pshycosis and side

affects from the meds, its horrible!!!

I have read about ECT and it doesnt seem so bad if that is all that is

left but I could not find anything about using it on LBD. Has anyone

had to resort to this option on a LO if so what was the outcome?

Any info and or support would be greatly appreciated. Also I did not

mention I am a single mom of two boys 12 yrs old and 1 1/2 years old

as well so I have alot on my plate and becoming very stressed.

Thank you in advance for any replys!

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Welcome to LBDcaregivers. & #65533;