Hello everyone, hope you are well. While mom was in rehab for physical therapy, I had a geropsych doctor see her. He changed her meds around because he thought she was to drowsy. He stopped her Alprazolam and put her on Buspar, decreased her Depakote once a day at night and decreased her Citalopram. The only problem is he kept her on Temezapam which is making her drowsy during the day. So as of last night I'm done with that... I'm not giving her Restoril. She is still to drowsy in the am and won't get out of bed, so I just kept her on her pain pills. Could she be having withdrawls from the Alprazolam? She is mean, angry and noncompliant ( more than usual)... I know the Temezepam is a benzodiazepines also and I think it's to much with the Buspar 5 mg three times a day. Has anyone ever been through this med switch? She's driving me crazy... and the drive is a short trip.
On a side note to another poster here...my dad takes Buspar and it is NOT worthless for him. It reduces his anxiety without the side effects of a benzodiazepine on the brain
Ask if any of those pills should have been tapered to reduce side effects.
Talk to a pharmacist about the issues
Ask to have a review of your mom's medications with a pharmacist.
Amazing how some doctors don't taper because they haven't been on that pill "that long" well, that sure has backfired on someone I know.
You can look up the meds online and read the interactions, whether it can be crushed or not and whether it needs to be tapered and educate yourself a bit on this too.
Good Luck! Oh.....Ask the Pharmacist....to review the meds.....doctors too busy....
Please contact her dr ASAP, in the meantime, talk to her pharmacist. They are very well versed in the drug interractions...seriously, IMHO, more so than the drs.
As a general rule of thumb, the American Geriatric Society advises that no person over the age of 65 be prescribed more than three central nervous system drugs at the same time. It should be noted that the FDA has issued warnings about the use of anti-psychotic meds in the geriatric population. Haldol is the anti-psychotic most closely linked to stroke and death in patients with dementia; Seroquel comes in at Number 2. If you can find one, your best bet might be to find a geriatric psychiatrist. They are, unfortunately, a rare breed.
Since I know about 90% are on antipsychotic drugs
I don't believe it is just the progression of the disease
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