Hi Everyone
My mother's dementia has taken a turn for the worse in the last 10 days. Mum is 70 and was diagnosed a year ago with vascular dementia & signs of alzheimers. She still lives in her own home with two care visits a day, usually for about 2 or 3 hours in duration.
10 days ago we noticed an increase in anxiety, mixed with a noticeable depression. There are a few know reasons - fear of television, mirrors and window reflections has come and gone for two years now, but appears to have worsened over the past few weeks. Also mum is struggling with pain from her knee and we have started to see specialists with a view to a knee-replacement. This is such a shame because mum still loves her garden but finds it difficult to do much due to her knee.
I have been getting regular phone calls during the night and need to go over to mums to comfort her when she's upset. This can't continue though because we have an 18 month old daughter and my wife is due to give birth to our second child in 3 weeks time. We have seen the GP and local dementia / mental health team this week - mum was initially prescribed Citalopram (an anti-depressant), however this was changed to Lorazepam following a second consultation two days later.
I would really appreciate any shared experiences of these drugs, positive or negative. Can they be taken together or will this cause more damage than good? It just seems to me that the specialists didn't really know what to try themselves and its a case of trial and error!
Thanks for reading, all responses will be gratefully received
Martin
My mother's dementia has taken a turn for the worse in the last 10 days. Mum is 70 and was diagnosed a year ago with vascular dementia & signs of alzheimers. She still lives in her own home with two care visits a day, usually for about 2 or 3 hours in duration.
10 days ago we noticed an increase in anxiety, mixed with a noticeable depression. There are a few know reasons - fear of television, mirrors and window reflections has come and gone for two years now, but appears to have worsened over the past few weeks. Also mum is struggling with pain from her knee and we have started to see specialists with a view to a knee-replacement. This is such a shame because mum still loves her garden but finds it difficult to do much due to her knee.
I have been getting regular phone calls during the night and need to go over to mums to comfort her when she's upset. This can't continue though because we have an 18 month old daughter and my wife is due to give birth to our second child in 3 weeks time. We have seen the GP and local dementia / mental health team this week - mum was initially prescribed Citalopram (an anti-depressant), however this was changed to Lorazepam following a second consultation two days later.
I would really appreciate any shared experiences of these drugs, positive or negative. Can they be taken together or will this cause more damage than good? It just seems to me that the specialists didn't really know what to try themselves and its a case of trial and error!
Thanks for reading, all responses will be gratefully received
Martin