My husband has taken Donepezil since he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in February last year. Recently he has become very aggressive, with furious rages, threatening me verbally and on one recent occasion, physically. The Donepezil is now being phased out and Memantine phased in - there has been a great improvement and he has just been prescribed the highest dose, 20mg. He has also been given Lorazapam, to be used as needed. He has also been diagnosed with a UTI for which I have to collect the antibiotics tomorrow.
Over the past week, he has shown the same behaviour every evening - he goes up to bed then comes back downstairs about 20 minutes later ranting at me, looking for ways out of the house, trying to establish which are the back and front doors, no idea where the bedrooms are and not sure what the stairs are or what they are for. Nothing I say has any effect and I am just accused of trying to get rid of him or to kill him. This happens three or four times, up and down the stairs and finally he calms down and eventually goes to his bedroom (we no longer sleep together, thank goodness) and stays there.
This evening I tried the Lorazapam for the first time when he was aggressive and losing control. He took a tablet and it seemed to calm him down. Then the usual up and downstairs started again and he finally went to bed when I was going up too.
Then he started pacing up and down the landing, talking to himself. I asked him why he was going downstairs and was told to be quiet, he had to pace out the distances. Then he started talking about work being done in the house, it wasn't being done properly, the lights don't work and the people had just left it. He was going to make his report and make sure they were all fired. He used to be a senior project manager in some very big London works so maybe he thought he was still there. Nothing he said made any sense at all and I wonder if he was hallucinating about the workmen. He is still wandering, obsessing about the unfinished work, talking total rubbish and has no idea it is 11 o'clock at night. We are not having any work done on the house, by the way.
Could this be an effect of the Lorazapam - I thought it was to calm people down! - , the Memantine or the UTI? Any advice? I can hear him in his bedroom so he isn't asleep yet. Or is it just one more step in his deterioration?
Over the past week, he has shown the same behaviour every evening - he goes up to bed then comes back downstairs about 20 minutes later ranting at me, looking for ways out of the house, trying to establish which are the back and front doors, no idea where the bedrooms are and not sure what the stairs are or what they are for. Nothing I say has any effect and I am just accused of trying to get rid of him or to kill him. This happens three or four times, up and down the stairs and finally he calms down and eventually goes to his bedroom (we no longer sleep together, thank goodness) and stays there.
This evening I tried the Lorazapam for the first time when he was aggressive and losing control. He took a tablet and it seemed to calm him down. Then the usual up and downstairs started again and he finally went to bed when I was going up too.
Then he started pacing up and down the landing, talking to himself. I asked him why he was going downstairs and was told to be quiet, he had to pace out the distances. Then he started talking about work being done in the house, it wasn't being done properly, the lights don't work and the people had just left it. He was going to make his report and make sure they were all fired. He used to be a senior project manager in some very big London works so maybe he thought he was still there. Nothing he said made any sense at all and I wonder if he was hallucinating about the workmen. He is still wandering, obsessing about the unfinished work, talking total rubbish and has no idea it is 11 o'clock at night. We are not having any work done on the house, by the way.
Could this be an effect of the Lorazapam - I thought it was to calm people down! - , the Memantine or the UTI? Any advice? I can hear him in his bedroom so he isn't asleep yet. Or is it just one more step in his deterioration?
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