auditory hallucinations and more - advice needed

[LadyA]

Hi all. Haven't been on for ages - just been plodding on. Wlm, hubby was prescribed Aricept earlier this year, but he is very paranoid about a lot of things - medication among them. He sat with the first tablet in his hand and a look of such terror on his face, about what horrific side effects this "dangerous drug" would have - and then he sat up all night waiting for the side effects. And what'dya know! The first "side effect" was insomnia And hallucinations, likely the combined effect of lack of sleep and terror I would say. So his doc and I felt that any benefit from the medication would be far outweighed by the effect of his fear. He has held steady at a certain point for almost a year now, but the last couple of months I have seen a deterioration - not always obvious, but there. He will chat away to friends who visit - and when they are gone, he will ask "That man that visited - what is his name?" - and might ask again an hour later. He is "losing" words much more noticeably and is no longer able to sidestep it - he can't find another way of saying what he wants, so his speech is becoming a bit more hesitant. The most noticeable change is that every single night now, he is hearing voices, and comes up from the bedroom to the living room asking "Who is here? I heard people talking." Sometimes it would be even later - the middle of the night - but he is quite convinced that he is right, and there is someone talking in the house or just outside our bedroom window (we live in the country). Yesterday he found some sort of ancient pipe sticking out of the ground at the boundary fence on the road and became convinced it was some sort of listening or transmitting device - that's where the voices are coming from! He was so worried about this pipe, and what it could be etc. - I told him that it was an old earthing rod from an electric fence, because before our house was built (early 1980s!) this was a field, and there would ahve been an electric fence around it - and they obviously couldn't get the earthing rod out of the ground, it was in so deep, so they just left it! So, does anyone have experience with auditory hallucinations? What is the best way of answering him? When the voices are obviously very real to him - and equally obviously, there is no-one in the house talking! Some nights if I am still up, I turn on a dvd and let it run, so that when he comes up saying he heard voices, I can tell him it must have been the dvd he heard. Other nights I tell him it must have been our neighbour calling his dogs. But he says now that these "people" who are talking are talking about us and saying horrible things about us. He will see his GP now and then, but will not acknowledge there is anything wrong other than that he is a little bit forgetful, and denies that he has dementia - he insists that that is just lies I make up about him, so I can get him locked up in a nursing home, and dope him up on drugs so he will sit drooling in a chair!

 

[TinaT]

I do hope that you have a specialist consultant in dementia who has seen your husband. I would keep a continuous log of all the events around the auditory hallucinations. Phone up the consultant's secretary to ask for an appointment so that you can discuss this with them. I would suggest going to the GP but very often the GP is as much at sea about such matters as you and I are. If you haven't seen a pysciatrist, I would ask the GP for an urgent appointment with one.

There are some medication which can help such things and I'm aware that with the paranoia about tablets this may be difficult for you to administer. It may be that the psychiatrist may suggest a spell in hospital to assess his current condition.

I wouldn't just leave things as they are because such paranoid symptoms do not go away by themselves, or at least they don't go away until your husband is at a more advanced state in this disease than he seems to be at present from what you have written.

xxTinaT

 

[LadyA]

That's one of the problems though (ONE of the problems? oh har har!)We have an excellent Psychiatry of Old Age team around here. Thankfully, I had some training in caring for the elderly and dementia care - and my tutor was one of the psychiatry of old age team for this region. I have her phone no., and can ring her anytime, which is great. My OH was referred to them about 4 or 5 years ago. He went twice - for the initial consultation and then for a follow-up visit after a CT scan (which was clear at that time). He went balistic when he saw the word "Psychiatrist" - only crazy people go to those. I must be trying to get the doctors to say he is out of his mind, and get him locked up! My husband's intellectual level is/was off the scale and he was also very highly educated, with a couple of Degrees and was a lifelong scholar. He did, as the Consultant Psychiatrist expected, pass the mini-mental tests easily. The consultant wanted to refer him to a neuro-psychologist to get a more in-depth idea of what was going on though, because OH did go down in a couple of areas - possibly his comprehension and language skills, though I'm not sure. OH refused point blank - he thought we were just going to give him "harder and harder" tests until he failed one - and then we would lock him in a nursing home and drug him up! He is convinced himself, and tells everyone that he decided to go and get these memory tests done, and the Consultant, when he finished the tests said "Why, what are you doing here, you are better than I am! There's absolutely nothing wrong with you, you got everything 100% right!"

His GP is very good with him, and has experience with dementia - his own father had Alzheimers disease. Thankfully too, Wlm likes his GP and usually, although not always, co-operates with him. The GP feels though that unless something happens, we really can't force him go back to the Consultant. Our best hope at the moment of getting him assessed seems to be if he was ill enough to have to be admitted to hospital, where his condition would quickly be obvious to staff. And physically, so far, he is in excellent health - although he has slowed down a lot in the last six months. He is 79 now.
It's just frustrating and tiring though. He sticks to me like glue. I work 4 hours a week, and that's the only break I get - and I'm only able to keep that on because it's been his routine for years that I go to work for a couple of hours those mornings. I'm his security blanket! If I go to the garden for five minutes, he will be out after me, "Just wondering where you are. Are you alright?" And he gets up now and then during the night - and as that's something he has always done, I don't even hear him! I have motion-sensor lights throughout the bedroom and hallways, so he won't fall, and I put the door keys out of sight, so he won't get outside without making a noise and I'd hear him. Funny thing though - a lot of other people still can't see his condition. He chats away to them, and they just don't realise. I've had to warn people who deal with him, and I hate doing that - just had to explain to people, so that they know if they make an arrangement with him (eg, if he invites them to dinner!) - they must make sure that I know about it, because Wlm will not remember to tell me - and when they turn up for dinner, he will deny that he invited them! Likewise, if they phone, they must not leave a message with him - they must speak to me or my daughter. Things like that - it took a long time, and several misadventures before people realised that I really meant it!