Hello all,
My Mum (83 and with Alzheimers) has been suffering intermittently from a delusion that my Dad (85, also with Alzheimers and in the CH with her) is not her husband but someone else.
We can't work out a trigger for it but it has been happening for about 8 weeks on an intermittent basis - maybe once or twice a week - and when it happens it's really distressing. She goes from being very calm, placid and chatty to panicked, screaming and abusive very quickly. No amount of reassurance that my Dad is my Dad seems to work. The CH have been brilliant and have worked out a strategy for dealing with the situation ..they take my Dad away for half an hour or so and then reintroduce him with lots of positive chat. It seems to work generally and she flips back to being 'normal' - talking to my Dad as she always has done with great affection. But the episodes are really upsetting for everyone and can last anything from half an hour to three hours My Dad, whose Alzheimers is generally worse, doesn't remember the day after but at the time he's fairly distraught.
So the CH have referred my Mum to the CPN for review to get their view. They think it might be something called Capgras Syndrome where someone periodically thinks their closest relative has been replaced by an imposter. They have suggested that there might be a mild medication that might help. Not sure about this - currently neither of my parents is on any medication apart from Donepezil.
I'm not unhappy at all about how the CH is handling it - in fact I'm really impressed with them - but just wondering if anyone else has any experience of this syndrome and how it is being managed? Particularly any medication?
My Mum (83 and with Alzheimers) has been suffering intermittently from a delusion that my Dad (85, also with Alzheimers and in the CH with her) is not her husband but someone else.
We can't work out a trigger for it but it has been happening for about 8 weeks on an intermittent basis - maybe once or twice a week - and when it happens it's really distressing. She goes from being very calm, placid and chatty to panicked, screaming and abusive very quickly. No amount of reassurance that my Dad is my Dad seems to work. The CH have been brilliant and have worked out a strategy for dealing with the situation ..they take my Dad away for half an hour or so and then reintroduce him with lots of positive chat. It seems to work generally and she flips back to being 'normal' - talking to my Dad as she always has done with great affection. But the episodes are really upsetting for everyone and can last anything from half an hour to three hours My Dad, whose Alzheimers is generally worse, doesn't remember the day after but at the time he's fairly distraught.
So the CH have referred my Mum to the CPN for review to get their view. They think it might be something called Capgras Syndrome where someone periodically thinks their closest relative has been replaced by an imposter. They have suggested that there might be a mild medication that might help. Not sure about this - currently neither of my parents is on any medication apart from Donepezil.
I'm not unhappy at all about how the CH is handling it - in fact I'm really impressed with them - but just wondering if anyone else has any experience of this syndrome and how it is being managed? Particularly any medication?