mother leaning to one side - is this a side effect of Donepezil?

[Josephine2]

Hello. My mother has mid (late?) stage Alzheimer's and has been taking 10mg of Donepezil for about 3 yrs. She has recently started to lean heavily to one side, which makes her unsteady on her feet and impairs her walking. After a few days, she straightens up but a couple of days later, starts listing again but to the opposite side.

One one health forum, someone described the same symptoms and said that it was a side effect of the Alzheimer's medication, Donepezil, and the only remedy was to stop taking the mediacation for a few weeks.

Neither my mother's GP or the memory nurse had heard of this side effect.

Has anyone here experienced the same thing? Does anyone know if it is a side effect of Donepezil?

Thanks in advance for any feedback

Josephine2

 

[stanleypj]

Welcome to TP Josephine,

My wife has dementia. She does exactly the same thing, even down to the little break between leaning left and leaning right. After 7 to 14 days, things go back to normal, often for a long time.

She is not on Donepezil.

When it first happened, the GP thought it was a reaction to back pain.

I suspect it is a symptom of the condition, but who can say?

On a practical note, I have to watch her when she walks up and down our hallway (which is narrow in one place) as she is liable to bang her head against the wall. It's also a strain trying to walk with her hanging onto my arm and leaning away.

 

[juniepoonie]

hi everyone hope your day is not to bad. we had exactly this problem when my brotherinlaw was admitted to the mental health assessment unit. he would lean one way have a little break then lean the other side then have a little break an it would stat again. sitting in a chair he would be leaning right over which ever sise it was affecting him on. he was on meds for AD but was taken off of these whilst being assessed. even the consultant who was very experienced in the desease was confused she gave it a name of dystonia . however hes stopped doing it now an still isn't on meds as it was thought no point as he was going into a NH from assessment unit. he is mid - late stage an is 66 years old. I would say he did it for about 3-4mths. hope this helps it has me as I hadn't come across anyone else with the same problem. best wishes all juniepoonie.

 

[snoggy1one]

Just wanted to add my experience.

My mum briefly took the same meds as yours and has swapped and changed having a few different ones. She also developed a leaning to one side but nobody mentioned the meds. She still has a tendency to lean to one side and easily topples over and backwards. I put it down to scoliosis or possibly curvature of the spine that some people get in old age?? Mum does need propping up when sitting straight on chairs and needs a walking frame to walk slightly straighter. Don't know if its a side effect of meds or bad posture developed with old age or even a symptom of alzheimers?...?

 

[Josephine2]

Hello. Just to say thank you for the comments - they were very helpful. I'm happy to report that the leaning did stop after a few days. It's come back a couple of times since but only for a few hours and not as severely. Thanks again.

 

[Tinytim]

Have uou heard of m.s.a my hubby was thought to have it she is now keeping it in mind ( his older persons gp consultant ) with this they tend to lean like your describing if you go on the multiply systems atrophy site you will learn more . Ive havent heard of it with dementia . And the two illnesses have a lot of things in common like choking and low bloodpressure disseyness and all sorts fred got a lot of this with his dementia but not the leaning .hope this helps

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Talking Point mobile app

 

[Juliebradley54]

Hi my mum refuses any meds so is med free and has days where she leans to the left all day. I tried propping pillows under her arm but it doesn’t help for long

 

[farmgirl]

My dad doesn't take that medication and leans very bad, he's in a wheel chair with no mobility but when he's ment right over I carnt get the strap around him to hoist him having a terrible time but no way can you sit him up straight.

 

[Kevinl]

I noticed that a few of the residents in the care home did this from time to time but only for a couple of days, some did it regularly, some just now and again, then one day my wife did it so I asked the nurse what the problem was.
She said it was constipation, gave my wife about 10 or 20 ml of some clear liquid and the next day she was better., the way the nurse said what it was implied it was common knowledge.
I've no idea what the science behind it is but whatever they gave her worked.
On.reflection over the years my wife did sometimes say she needed to eat fruit and sometimes she took Fibregel (if that's what it's called) so I guess she was managing constipation and when she became ill she stopped doing it.
The home aren't allowed to give the residents any medication that's not on prescription even paracetamol but they are allowed to give this laxative without calling the doctor.
K