Jekyll & Hyde behaviour.

Ashburton

Registered User
Feb 19, 2007
99
0
My mums behaviour seems to be getting worse. I suppose this stage started last October, initially it was only once a month, but over time the frequency of the aggression has increased. I know from reading other posts there are lots of others in a worse position. But over the last couple of weeks, there has only been two nights when my mum has not been aggressive. The thing is that during the day she is completely normal, always good humoured and loving. However once she goes to bed this all changes, she might sleep for an hour or two and will wake up suddenly and then it starts, my mum becomes a completely different person, this normally lasts for an hour or if things are bad two hours. Last night I think was the worst. I actually was really concerned for my Mums health, she just flipped and was shouting, screaming,talking no sense, banging doors, telling me that I had killed her, but it got to the stage that I thought she was having a heart attack,her breathing was all wrong and thought she was going to collapse. This lasted for about an hour, finally she went back to bed, she woke up a couple more times and seemed confused and cursed me a couple of times, but that was it. Today she is completely normal again,laughing and joking and her usual self again. I know this seems to be related to my mum falling asleep and waking up at night time. Its weird because we travel to London quite often and she never has this problem in the hotel, actually she normally sleeps through the night there. I know medication is not the answer, but I really wish this phase will pass by soon.
 

MillyP

Registered User
Jan 5, 2007
108
0
London
Hi and welcome...has your mum seen a Doctor and has she been diagnosed with anything if she has?
 

jenniferpa

Registered User
Jun 27, 2006
39,442
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Oh dear. how difficult for you. You say she seems to sleep better in the hotel - do you think this might be because she is more tired or is there anything else that these trips involve that might contribute to the improved sleeping. I've never experienced the aggresion, but I have had some extrememly peculiar conversations with my mother in the middle of the night: sort of Alice in Wonderland scenarios.

Have you tried any medication to help her sleep? Alternatively have you tried stopping any sleep medication?
 

Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,447
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Kent
Hi Ashburton,

Forgive me, but why do you think medication isn`t the answer.

If your mother is fine through the day, but has such disturbed sleep patterns every night, I would have thought medication was the best solution to a very upsetting problem.

Have you discussed this with your mother`s GP. It would be my first port of call.

I hope you find a solution soon.
 

Ashburton

Registered User
Feb 19, 2007
99
0
Grannie G said:
Hi Ashburton,

Forgive me, but why do you think medication isn`t the answer.

If your mother is fine through the day, but has such disturbed sleep patterns every night, I would have thought medication was the best solution to a very upsetting problem.

Have you discussed this with your mother`s GP. It would be my first port of call.

I hope you find a solution soon.


I suppose a combination of things,firstly this website and factsheet, it seems to say that medication should be used as a last resort, might be taking this up wrong however. I did mention it to my mums psychiatrist on her last visit, he put her on a low dosage of Molipaxin(Trazodone). I may have made an error but after 4 nights I stopped my mum taking it as it seemed to add to her confusion and anxiety. Was I too hasty in taking her off the medication? I told the psychiatrist about this, as my mum is not due to see him until November, he suggested I see him, but the earliest he can see me is September as I had wanted to discuss with him what medication is open to my mum. September seems a long time to wait until, should I contact my gp, I discussed the Molipaxin with him, he looked it up in the medication book and said to start off low on it and give it a few days. Actually the psychiatrist does not seem on the medication approach either. Suppose I am just hoping that we are going through a bad patch and things will improve
 

Ashburton

Registered User
Feb 19, 2007
99
0
jenniferpa said:
Oh dear. how difficult for you. You say she seems to sleep better in the hotel - do you think this might be because she is more tired or is there anything else that these trips involve that might contribute to the improved sleeping. I've never experienced the aggresion, but I have had some extrememly peculiar conversations with my mother in the middle of the night: sort of Alice in Wonderland scenarios.

Have you tried any medication to help her sleep? Alternatively have you tried stopping any sleep medication?


Can't quite work out why she sleeps better in London, suppose she would be more active in London, we normally go for a couple of days at a time and would go to the football, so suppose day can be longer and is out in the air more, whereas at home while we go out each day we spend more time indoors.
 

Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,447
0
Kent
Ashburton said:
he put her on a low dosage of Molipaxin(Trazodone). I may have made an error but after 4 nights I stopped my mum taking it as it seemed to add to her confusion and anxiety. Was I too hasty in taking her off the medication? I told the psychiatrist about this, as my mum is not due to see him until November, he suggested I see him, but the earliest he can see me is September as I had wanted to discuss with him what medication is open to my mum. September seems a long time to wait until, should I contact my gp, I discussed the Molipaxin with him, he looked it up in the medication book and said to start off low on it and give it a few days. hoping that we

Just to say my husband is on Trazodone, and of all the challenges I have with him, sleeping is not one of them. He sleeps undisturbed all night and wakes refreshed. But different people have different reactions to medication.

Another thing, I would never make any changes to my husband`s medication without consultation.

My GP no longer has responsibility for Trazodone, even though it was prescribed by him originally. It is now under the control of the Geriatric Psychologist.

Whebnever I have had concerns about medication, I have phoned the GP and spoken to the receptionist, or phoned the psychiatrist and spoken to his secretary. They have passed messages on and always phoned me back.
 

Ashburton

Registered User
Feb 19, 2007
99
0
Grannie G said:
Just to say my husband is on Trazodone, and of all the challenges I have with him, sleeping is not one of them. He sleeps undisturbed all night and wakes refreshed. But different people have different reactions to medication.

Another thing, I would never make any changes to my husband`s medication without consultation.

My GP no longer has responsibility for Trazodone, even though it was prescribed by him originally. It is now under the control of the Geriatric Psychologist.

Whebnever I have had concerns about medication, I have phoned the GP and spoken to the receptionist, or phoned the psychiatrist and spoken to his secretary. They have passed messages on and always phoned me back.

I checked with the psychiatrist first before taking her off, just told him that she seemed to have got more confused after starting it and would it be better to come off it, he agreed, but I am now wondering if I was too hasty in taking her off it? With medication like this how long does it take to have an impact, was I too hasty?
 

Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,447
0
Kent
When my husband started taking Trazodone, everything didn`t suddenly become rosy.

He was prescribed it for anxiety and depression. He is still anxious and depressed and his dose has this week been increased from 150mg to 200mg. But it did help his disturbed sleep, he had nightmares and hallucinated, and we have none of that now.
 

Ashburton

Registered User
Feb 19, 2007
99
0
Grannie G said:
When my husband started taking Trazodone, everything didn`t suddenly become rosy.

He was prescribed it for anxiety and depression. He is still anxious and depressed and his dose has this week been increased from 150mg to 200mg. But it did help his disturbed sleep, he had nightmares and hallucinated, and we have none of that now.


I think I will call our GP first thing and have a chat with him, would be the best thing to do rather than waiting until September. Thanks :)
 

Margarita

Registered User
Feb 17, 2006
10,824
0
london
I read that Trazodone is an Antidepressants, seeing that your mother has had AD since 03 , am just wondering why doctor has not given your mother medication for AD , or has him given her medication for AD and it did not work ?

I read in your other thread about your mother and the mirror , has she still got those symptoms ?

are you your mother full time carer if you don't mind me asking ?
 

jenniferpa

Registered User
Jun 27, 2006
39,442
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Ashburton, unless I'm looking at the wong thing, is not trazadone more for depression? Is your mother depressed, because the way you describe her in "day light" that would not appear to be the case? I'm just wondering whether a sleep medication, not necessarily a sedative, because the problem with those is that you then can have a sedated but awake person, might be effective for her. I've had the experience of dealing with the "walking zombie" effect you can sometimes get with the benzodiazepam sort of sleep meds, and I'm a bit wary of those but there are other options available. I think you're right about consiulting the GP ASAP: you really can't cope with this sort of thing, let alone the distress for your mother (even though she doesn't probably remember the outbursts).
 

Ashburton

Registered User
Feb 19, 2007
99
0
Margarita said:
I read that Trazodone is an Antidepressants, seeing that your mother has had AD since 03 , am just wondering why doctor has not given your mother medication for AD , or has him given her medication for AD and it did not work ?

I read in your other thread about your mother and the mirror , has she still got those symptoms ?

are you your mother full time carer if you don't mind me asking ?

My mum has been on aricept since 2003 and still is, now 10mg.


Regarding the mirrors, well I have covered these up now, so not a problem, again strange thing is when we are out and she passes by a mirror or we are in a lift with a mirror, she has no reaction to them

Yes I am my Mums full time carer, had been on half days from work up until Jan 06, then left work fully, initially taking up the carers leave option, which finished in May 07 and resigned then.
 

sue38

Registered User
Mar 6, 2007
10,849
0
55
Wigan, Lancs
Prior to being formally diagnosed with dementia, my Dad was on anti-depressants (sorry don't know which one). We felt it added to his confusion and he was more 'spaced out' - very quiet and subdued.

When he was diagnosed, the anti-depressants were stopped and he was put on Ebixa. We got more of my Dad back - the good, the bad and the ugly ;) .

To a certain extent we felt that we had to choose between the lesser of 2 evils, but personally I would rather have the more challenging Dad than the zombie Dad.

Also stopping one medication and starting another at the same time meant that it was impossible to say whether the improvement in his awareness was down to stopping one or starting the other.

It's a personal decision, and one that should be taken with the advice of the doctors, IMHO.
 

Ashburton

Registered User
Feb 19, 2007
99
0
jenniferpa said:
Ashburton, unless I'm looking at the wong thing, is not trazadone more for depression? Is your mother depressed, because the way you describe her in "day light" that would not appear to be the case? I'm just wondering whether a sleep medication, not necessarily a sedative, because the problem with those is that you then can have a sedated but awake person, might be effective for her. I've had the experience of dealing with the "walking zombie" effect you can sometimes get with the benzodiazepam sort of sleep meds, and I'm a bit wary of those but there are other options available. I think you're right about consiulting the GP ASAP: you really can't cope with this sort of thing, let alone the distress for your mother (even though she doesn't probably remember the outbursts).



Have to say my Mum does not appear depressed, during the day she laughs and jokes too much, I think she does sometimes remember the outbursts, for instance she burst into tears today and said sorry, when I said she had nothing to be sorry for and that everything was ok, she was fine. Hopefully the GP will be able to suggest something.
 

Ashburton

Registered User
Feb 19, 2007
99
0
sue38 said:
Prior to being formally diagnosed with dementia, my Dad was on anti-depressants (sorry don't know which one). We felt it added to his confusion and he was more 'spaced out' - very quiet and subdued.

When he was diagnosed, the anti-depressants were stopped and he was put on Ebixa. We got more of my Dad back - the good, the bad and the ugly ;) .


When my mum first went into the psychiatric hospital to get diagnosed she was also put on Valium and got that same spaced out thing which was a real shock, she came off them after being diagnosed with AD nad been let home and she got back to normal.
 

Margarita

Registered User
Feb 17, 2006
10,824
0
london
this may be of no help , but my mother does get very angry if I wake her up from a sleep , but it does not last that long .


but it got to the stage that I thought she was having a heart attack,her breathing was all wrong and thought she was going to collapse.

that could be a panic attack from getting so angry , but you never really know also must be frightening for you to see .

My mother always been on exbiza , so I am not sure what they do if they think the medication for AD may not be working so good as it did in the beginning as your mother been taken aricept 10g for the last 3 years , could you ask the doctor opinion about putting the medication up more grains , so it may help with the anger or would it help ?

Does any one no if they can do that or if it would help ?
 
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Ashburton

Registered User
Feb 19, 2007
99
0
Margarita said:
this may be of no help , but my mother does get very angry if I wake her up from a sleep , but it does not last that long .




that could be a panic attack from getting so angry , but you never really know also must be frightening for you to see .


Hi Margarita.

Yes think it was a panic attack, but have to say at the time I was terrified.
 

May

Registered User
Oct 15, 2005
627
0
Yorkshire
Ashburton

If your Mum is like this EVERY night I would say you need to go back and try medication again.
Sorry, but having gone through the horrors of hallucinations (these were daytime ones) that were only controlled by going on to an anti-psychotic, a certain amount of 'zombiefied' to me seems preferable to having a Mum who is terrified and out of her head! I too used to fear for my Mum's health when she was in these attacks (and they were every day). Mum finally ended up on a combination of anti-phsycotic and sleeping tablets. Maybe you just need a sleeping tablet that would calm your Mum during the night.

Take care what ever you do.

PS. I used to try and remove myself from the 'field of fire' during Mum's attacks, as trying to calm her down seemed to make things worse.