Hello everyone,
Soooo glad to have found this site!
My mum has a recent diagnosis of Alzhiemer's but it didn't come as too huge a shock. She's deteriorated quite rapidly over the past few months and I've had a suspicion something's not been right for a year or two. It's just been really hard to gently coax her to the doctors to talk about her memory problems!
Anyway, I have lots and lots to ask everyone and would really value some help and support. She has just started getting professional care and is under a psychiatrist. Last May, another health professional suggested to me that she may have Vascular Dementia because she has been having symptoms of mini-strokes. These symptoms (waking up confused and dizzy, with nausea, trembling and weakness in her arms) have increased significantly over the past three months and her mental impairment has worsened alongside. However, her psychiatrist says her dementia is probably Alzhiemer's and I wonder how they tell the difference. (My maternal grandmother also had Alzhiemer's).
Mum is having quite a bad depressive episode at the moment with lots of anxiety symptoms and the psychiatrist said this could be the cause of her physical symptoms. She has been taking the antidepressant Citalopram for four weeks with no improvement and has been more or less permanently staying with me because she can't cope on her own. She's 78.
I wonder if anyone has had a similar experience and whether her depression will lift? The psychiatrist says that he can start her on medication to help her memory once her depression is treated.
Many thanks.
J
Soooo glad to have found this site!
My mum has a recent diagnosis of Alzhiemer's but it didn't come as too huge a shock. She's deteriorated quite rapidly over the past few months and I've had a suspicion something's not been right for a year or two. It's just been really hard to gently coax her to the doctors to talk about her memory problems!
Anyway, I have lots and lots to ask everyone and would really value some help and support. She has just started getting professional care and is under a psychiatrist. Last May, another health professional suggested to me that she may have Vascular Dementia because she has been having symptoms of mini-strokes. These symptoms (waking up confused and dizzy, with nausea, trembling and weakness in her arms) have increased significantly over the past three months and her mental impairment has worsened alongside. However, her psychiatrist says her dementia is probably Alzhiemer's and I wonder how they tell the difference. (My maternal grandmother also had Alzhiemer's).
Mum is having quite a bad depressive episode at the moment with lots of anxiety symptoms and the psychiatrist said this could be the cause of her physical symptoms. She has been taking the antidepressant Citalopram for four weeks with no improvement and has been more or less permanently staying with me because she can't cope on her own. She's 78.
I wonder if anyone has had a similar experience and whether her depression will lift? The psychiatrist says that he can start her on medication to help her memory once her depression is treated.
Many thanks.
J