Mom was diagnosed with Parkinson's and Lewy Body Dementia just recently. She is currently on Seroquel and Aricept.
Are having hallucinations common only at night?
During the day, she seems fine.
But she does remember her hallucinations (little child in her room, men trying to attack her, etc) during the day, and is able to recall them as if they really happened. Mom is currently in an Assisted Living Facility.
Any remedies out there she can use to sleep through the night, and maybe avoid these hallucinations?
And will these get worst over time?
Thank-you.
She takes 25mg of Seroquel daily, I cut the pill in half and give her one at breakfast and the other half at about 5pm , that seems to be working because the "sightings" are much less frequent, and don't last as long. Along with Aricept, Lexapro, and Namenda she sleeps soundly, but she still has difficulty at times with simple tasks during the day. The doctors told me that this disease can only be slowed down, but not cured.
Each person responds differently to these meds, so the results for each individual are different. Right now it's a chemistry test, I just hope the right combinations can be found. Good luck with your Mom, I hope you can find the right combo of meds for her
in her final years, my mother lived in a deluded and hallucinatory world almost exclusively. Young boys were stalking her, men were coming through her closet, the lights in her rooms were bugged by Russian spies, on and on. The NH tried to find the right medications to ease her stress but I’m not sure they ever really did. It seems that “being attacked” is a common hallucination. People with dementia seem to have a “flight or fight” reaction to just about everything.
Share your concerns with the staff at the AL and ask them if there might be a different combination of nighttime meds that might help her. Sadly, there is no “fix” for this disease.
How long did you mom go through all this ?
What is scary for me is that if my mom gets worst, I would have to move her to a facility that can handle memory care issues, and not just Assisted Living, as where she is now. Moving mom is going to be trauma on her. (She did call the police twice after her hallucinations at night, and so to help things, mom has a sitter in her room at night for the interim, and her phone is un-plugged). If nothing works, I have to move her, which means much higher costs.
How did you cope with all of this ?