Auditory hallucinations

rneri9

My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s over 2 months ago , she is 74, I honestly think she had it for a couple of years now she used to see things she said when she was waking up now she hears people talking to her but she don’t see them, the neurologist said that’s a mental health issue, I told him my mother never had any mental health problems all her life why would she start now , he is not putting it with the Alzheimer’s but everything I read up on Alzheimer’s or dementia it has audio hallucinations, am I missing something with this dr? Or should I get a new dr? I’m new to all this so idk what to do .

terei

You need a new doctor. I would suggest trying to find a geriatric psychiatrist to assess + recommend appropriate meds. Hallucinations, audio + visual are not uncommon with dementia AT ALL. I’m sure there are many on the board that can talk about this from first hand experience

stretchedthin

I’ve heard from others that Lewy-Body Dementia and forms of Parkinsons with Dementia seem to have more hallucinations. My Mom experienced several scary wake up screaming type hallucinations while recovering from a broken pelvis at the early stage of her diagnosis (I’d suspected AD for many years, but didn’t get diagnosis until the injury provided an opportunity). I don’t know if the hallucinations were medicine related (though the last ones She was only on tylenol) or perhaps the pain of injury and anxiety of feeling vulnerable and unable to cope was processing thru her brain and emotions coming out in night terrors of things coming to get her (wild animals, bad people, etc). She doesn’t seem to be having these now, but I have noticed her light is on sometimes in middle of the night and next AM she always says she “slept fine”

M1

I suspect what the doctor is implying is that in people without dementia, pure auditory hallucinations are in fact always indicative of a psychiatric source (Which is not true of visual hallucinations, which are many times drug induced). But dementia changes the equations, for sure; it is also harder to distinguish true hallucinations from sensory processing issues that lead to misinterpretation of real sounds or sights.

That this was a neurologist who said this doesn't bode well for dementia expertise, but frankly many neurologists are not much help with managing the behavioral aspects of the illness. I agree that you may be better off with a geriatric psychiatrist or even a well trained internist. The atypical antipsychotics like Seroquel and risperdal are usually effective in these scenarios. FWIW these hallucinations or delusions are rarely pleasant, so that treating them is a kindness to the person experiencing them.

gbriggs

My 84 year old mother is also suffering from auditory hallucinations. These have been going on for close to a year now. They come in the form of alarms and now a neighbor speaking to her, or about her, in a device that my mom believes is planted in her basement. Only once did she have a day where she had an intense visual hallucination. Hers are auditory and mostly first thing in the morning or unfortunately all night. She will hear music or sometimes him as well during the day. Heartbreaking... please know you are not alone.