Medication Help

kblau

A few years ago before my mom had a confirmed diagnosis of ALZ, she was started on Lexapro 20mg, then namenda and aricept. She’s been in AL for 3 months. Geriatric Psych at the facility added on Wellbutrin 8 weeks ago bc of depression/apathy. 2 weeks ago she started Xanax .25mg 3/day bc of her aggression/anxiety. She started sleeping a lot. So I had him reduce the dose to twice a day at 10am and 6pm. Now, she’s sleeping a lot during the day and wandering the facility at night. Idk what to do. She will be moved into MC in 2 weeks. They are coming to assess her care level next week at 4pm and I’m nervous. Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences with these meds or others that have helped?

M1

Welcome to the forum. Those drugs are sending a lot of mixed messages, literally and figuratively. Giving her a stimulating antidepressant like Wellbutrin is going to ramp her up, and then you're going to turn around and give her a big dose of Xanax, to take her back down? It really doesn't make a lot of sense. I would ask for an immediate sitdown with the doctors to go over her care. If sleeping at night is an issue, she might do better over all with an atypical antipsychotic like Seroquel, which will both help her sleep and tamp down the aggression. Maybe they could then get her off the Xanax altogether.

The move to memory care will probably help.

kblau

thank you. I knew this didn’t seem right. We have a scheduled appt with a neuro psych (waited 6 months for it) next Wednesday. I’m hoping it doesn’t go array before then.