Hello, I am looking for advice about treatment of alcoholism in people with dementia. My mother (80) was diagnosed with vascular or mixed dementia a couple of years ago, it is early stages and appears to be well controlled by Aricept. However, her drinking has got worse and worse to the point where she drinks to the point of drunkenness every evening and is abusive with anyone who suggests she should cut down or stop. She's due to go for a liver scan next week and there may be some serious health effects. It's making life pretty miserable for those involved in her care. The doctor has read her the riot act and told her to stop drinking but she won't listen and she says it's the only thing she enjoys, she'd rather be dead than stop drinking. Yet it's clearly having a negative effect on both her general health and her mood.
She denies/forgets/pretends to forget there is a problem and even if she agrees she should stop, the next time she wants a drink she'll just deny having agreed not to. We water down her drink but she just has more of them. We bought a bottle of non-alcoholic whisky but she laughed us out of the room.
So in many ways she's a typical alcoholic but on the other hand the dementia makes it complicated. I don't know where to get specialist help or advice.
The main practical issue at the moment is, I don't know whether we should stop her access to alcohol (and take the consequences which may include her telling us all where to go, being left on her own and having an alcohol-related accident). Or let her drink and just walk away. Or accept that it's her choice, let her drink and stay to watch, which I personally find very difficult.
Would love to hear from anyone who has had a similar experience or who knows of any resources or where to get help. There seems to be quite a lot of information on alcohol-induced dementia--but this is a different problem and I haven't seen much discussion of it.
She denies/forgets/pretends to forget there is a problem and even if she agrees she should stop, the next time she wants a drink she'll just deny having agreed not to. We water down her drink but she just has more of them. We bought a bottle of non-alcoholic whisky but she laughed us out of the room.
So in many ways she's a typical alcoholic but on the other hand the dementia makes it complicated. I don't know where to get specialist help or advice.
The main practical issue at the moment is, I don't know whether we should stop her access to alcohol (and take the consequences which may include her telling us all where to go, being left on her own and having an alcohol-related accident). Or let her drink and just walk away. Or accept that it's her choice, let her drink and stay to watch, which I personally find very difficult.
Would love to hear from anyone who has had a similar experience or who knows of any resources or where to get help. There seems to be quite a lot of information on alcohol-induced dementia--but this is a different problem and I haven't seen much discussion of it.