Need advice on paranoia/delusions

DeldeeC

Hello All.  My darling mother is in early to mid-stage of unspecified Dementia. It is completely different than what I previously experienced with my grandmother's dementia 20 years ago and I'm struggling.  In the last several weeks, her delusions and paranoia have increased greatly and I am at a loss how to deal with it.  Nothing seems to curb it.  Every day, she is convinced every one of us in her family and outside caregivers are putting something in/on her food and drinks to make her sleep or make her "out of it", that we are all recording conversations on our phones and taking inappropriate pictures of her, and now she is hearing voices "coming through her hearing aids" and is convinced we are all "up to something" and hiding it from her and won't tell her what is going on.  I have tried everything from reassurance, to diverting, to telling her I know she hears these conversations, but I don't hear them and don't know anything about them, to even telling her I think her mind is playing tricks on her (when she says she knows she isn't crazy).  I don't know if there is a "right" way to respond, but it is devastating to me and to my 22 year old daughter who is now her primary caregiver (I live in another state, so only see her about once a month).  We only want to take care of her and give her the best life possible, but this is making it very hard to deal with.  We have tried a couple of medications and just started another new one a few days ago, but nothing seems to help.  She is 87 years young, wheelchair bound and has a couple of other health issues, but the dementia is by far the most difficult to manage.  Any thoughts or advice would be greatly welcomed and appreciated!

LicketyGlitz

We didn't go through this phase with our mom, Deldee, so I'm sure you will get some excellent suggestions from others who did, I just wanted to pipe up and ask who is helping you choose medications? If you haven't already accessed a geriatric psych doctor and you can get a referral from her PCP I would highly recommend it. They specialize in meds for both healthy and cognitive decline elderly. When our mom hit the rage stage her geri psych doctor helped us tremendously to get the right med, dosage, and times to giver her some relief.

Good luck to you all! I hope you find a working solution soon.

​fesk

DeldeeC, I am sorry your mother and you are going through this. If you haven't already done so, please rule out any medical issues for the behavior - blood tests, UTI test, medication interactions, etc.

As LicketyGlitz mentioned, then make sure you are having a specialist work with you on medication for these behaviors. It is very much trial and error. I would recommend researching any medicine being given and how it is being given and going slowly. It can take weeks before a medication helps.

Hopefully, they will find the right medicine to help soon.

DeldeeC

Thank you.  It's only been 6 days on the new meds.  Hopefully this will be the right one for some help if we can just be patient.  She is on hospice, so their doctor is the only one we have been consulting.  It's just hard to know what the right thing to say is or how to react in the moment.  I know it's the dementia, not her - but it doesn't make the things she says hurt any less.