Hello, it’s a while since I’ve been here but my Dad is 72 next week and has had Alzheimer’s for about 14 years. He is now cared for in a nursing home as of the last year, where he went from a secure elderly psychiatric ward. My mum could no longer care for him at home despite my daily support due to his aggressive and erratic outbursts.
The home is ok but it will never be the same as my mum looking after him and she is heartbroken about this. She visits every afternoon without fail from 2pm to 8.30pm, when she gives him his final medication and tucks him in for bed.
Our problem is that he is deteriorating fast over the last few weeks and we feel it is the olanzapine he is on as he is very sensitive to them. The olanzapine definitely helps with his mood and they did stop it for a while but he became very aggressive again so was put back on a small dose 2.5 mg. He is also on sodium valproate because he had a couple of seizures, and all the contraindications say you shouldn’t be on anti psychotics as well.
Where we would walk him to the toilet when we visited, he can now no longer get out of the chair. He is plenty strong enough but becomes very rigid and uncoordinated and cannot take any instruction. Therefore the staff now have to hoist him to go to the toilet but he is now being incontinent, whereas this was rarely a problem when we visited as we regularly toilet him. The staff do not have the time that we have to spend with him so everything feels rushed but we now have to rely on them. My mum is devastated that yet another role of her being able to care for him has been taken away from her.
We will also no longer be able to take him out back home for dinner, as we occasionally do as we cannot get him in and out of a car, which we were able to do only a month ago, and would not be able to toilet him either.
I really feel frustrated that the olanzapine and valproate are gradually killing him and taking away any quality he has as he is happier on it most of the time but still gets very agitated during his care with the staff.
I don’t know what the answer is but have been reading up on gabapentin, which I know is for epilepsy and nerve pain and that there has been some evidence it helps with aggression and agitation in dementia, but there are very limited studies. I am aware that everyone responds differently to medication but wondered if anyone else had experience of a person with Alzheimer’s on gabapentin or Pregabalin. I sort of feel anything is worth a try to improve Dads quality of life as so many drugs are used off licence for dementia but at 72 he was always fit and well with no other health problem but his dementia until he was commenced on anti psychotics.
The home is ok but it will never be the same as my mum looking after him and she is heartbroken about this. She visits every afternoon without fail from 2pm to 8.30pm, when she gives him his final medication and tucks him in for bed.
Our problem is that he is deteriorating fast over the last few weeks and we feel it is the olanzapine he is on as he is very sensitive to them. The olanzapine definitely helps with his mood and they did stop it for a while but he became very aggressive again so was put back on a small dose 2.5 mg. He is also on sodium valproate because he had a couple of seizures, and all the contraindications say you shouldn’t be on anti psychotics as well.
Where we would walk him to the toilet when we visited, he can now no longer get out of the chair. He is plenty strong enough but becomes very rigid and uncoordinated and cannot take any instruction. Therefore the staff now have to hoist him to go to the toilet but he is now being incontinent, whereas this was rarely a problem when we visited as we regularly toilet him. The staff do not have the time that we have to spend with him so everything feels rushed but we now have to rely on them. My mum is devastated that yet another role of her being able to care for him has been taken away from her.
We will also no longer be able to take him out back home for dinner, as we occasionally do as we cannot get him in and out of a car, which we were able to do only a month ago, and would not be able to toilet him either.
I really feel frustrated that the olanzapine and valproate are gradually killing him and taking away any quality he has as he is happier on it most of the time but still gets very agitated during his care with the staff.
I don’t know what the answer is but have been reading up on gabapentin, which I know is for epilepsy and nerve pain and that there has been some evidence it helps with aggression and agitation in dementia, but there are very limited studies. I am aware that everyone responds differently to medication but wondered if anyone else had experience of a person with Alzheimer’s on gabapentin or Pregabalin. I sort of feel anything is worth a try to improve Dads quality of life as so many drugs are used off licence for dementia but at 72 he was always fit and well with no other health problem but his dementia until he was commenced on anti psychotics.
