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I'd like to share a couple of thoughts about PD and the mind:

People do tend to use terms like "dementia" loosely, and sometimes this
leads to unnecessary worry. During the past year I have seen my husband
experiencing episodes that certainly could be called demented. He was seeing
people around him in our house, and on one memorable occasion he pretty well
trashed the kitchen during the night. He thought he was trying to stop
people from tearing the place apart. These episodes were all caused by
medications. There is nothing wrong with his mind when his medications are
carefully titrated ... and when I am controlling his nightime access to
them. One of the problems with overdosing on medications is related to
the combination of weight and age of the patient. A number of the meds that
PWPs take come with a warning that elderly patients may need smaller doses.
When the patient is both elderly and weighs well under the standard, the
usual prescribed dosages may be too much. This was the case for my husband.
Now that we have cut the minimum prescribed dose for muscle relaxers and
sleep aids in half, we have had no more trouble with drug induced dementia.

There is an increasing inability to concentrate for any length of time as
his ON periods are diminishing these days. And bradyphrenia is increasing
along with increasing physical slowness. But mental function is as sharp as
ever. He can still ace the neuro's test of counting backwards from 100 by
sevens. That's something I never could do easily. His long-term and short-
term memory are better than mine. Of course, I have to admit a day or two
may go by before that pesky name neither of us could remember comes to the
surface.

About memory and RAM: I am convinced that nothing that happens to us is
forgotten. It is stored somewhere in those trillions of brain cells. I came
to this conclusion after numerous nightime sessions when I listened to my
sleeping husband (a retired teacher)re-live entire class sessions that had
taken place twenty-five or more years earlier. These recreations included
all of the vocal intonations, little coughs or chuckles, and pauses when
students were talking, followed by his answers. I assumed his brain was
undergoing some spring cleaning. Even stranger, his voice was what it used
to be before advancing PD weakened it. Recently this has ceased, but it was
eerie while it lasted.

Martha Rohrer  (CG for Neal, 77/12)
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