Hi Ellen--- You had an excellent reply from Dr. Romero---I can only agree
with his comments. I too wondered about anti-hallucinatory meds, Seroquel
or Clozaril for example, as Seroquel was quite helpful to my husband for
many months, until he too had a drastic change of scene which escalated
his dementia. Six years is not very long since diagnosis, and one can hope
that with a return to his normal routine things would settle back down--but
this would take weeks, probably. Being in rehab is pretty stressful, and
is probably disorienting to someone who has some dementia to start with.
From your research you probably know that it can be very hard to balance
the PD meds and anti-psychotics in order to get both mobility and mental
clarity--sometimes it is impossible, and one or the other has to go. It
seems he is on no other PD meds except Sinemet---sometimes reducing that
will help relieve the hallucinations, as you may know, at the cost of less
mobility---which would be a problem as they are trying to get him walking
again......no easy answers.
>My uncle, 79 years old, who was diagnosed with PD six years ago, was
>functioning reasonably well, despite tremors, shuffling, and suffering some
>memory loss and difficulty concentrating. He was working on ways to get
>around his difficulties to revise one of his books on July 4 when he fell
>and broke his hip. Since then -- in the hospital and now in the rehab
>facilty -- he has hallucinations, is often delusional and paranoid, and has
>significant memory loss. Since he doesn't remember or realize that he broke
>his hip, he tries to stand up from the bed or wheelchair, and has fallen
>again. His progress in physical therapy is slow and erratic, partly I think
>because of the memory problem, and perhaps because of the off/on of the
>L-dopa. He went for a CAT scan last week, though the results aren't in yet.
> Sometimes conversations with him are like old times, especially if
>we talk
>of the past, but his grasp of what's going on in the present is pretty
>wild. He seems very passive, doesn't initiate activities like reading, as
>far as I can tell. I'm not the primary caregiver -- his wife and two grown
>children are on the scene. His doctor says some of his confusion may clear
>up when he gets home.
> He is on essentially the same medications he was on at home, though I
>don't know the dosages: He was not given a general anaesthetic at any point
>because he has hallucinated with them in the past.
>Sinimet
>Docusate
>Florineff
>Multivitamin
>Prevacid
>Ranitidine - xantac
>Senna
>Ferrous Gluconate
>Wellbutrin
>
>I inquired about his potassium levels, since florineff causes them to drop,
>but that seems to be in the low normal range. This spring he was on another
>Parkinsons drug which gave him different sorts of hallucinations -- don't
>know the name of it.
> Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences or suggestions about
>delusions or hallucinations related to Parkinsons?
>Thanks.
>Ellen Garvey
>
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Camilla Flintermann, former CG for Peter 83/70/55
Oxford, Ohio
<[log in to unmask]>
on the web at http://www.geocities.com/camillahf/index.html
and also at http://members.tripod.lycos.nl/genugten/flinterm.htm
"Ask me about the CARE list for Caregivers of Parkinsonians ! "
And visit the CARE webring at http://www.pdcaregiver.org
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