Early Stage ALZ and hallucinations

LisaUH

Hi all! My Mom is 85 years old and has early stage ALZ. She is living in a senior living center (as assisted living) and loving it. She generally does quite well, just the bad memory and confusion from time to time. While she was living in her home (with her husband who has since passed away from lewy body), she was having hallucinations thinking people were banging on her bedroom door, and living in the guest room walk in closet. At the time, I chalked it up to stress but it got worse after he passed away, and then was later diagnosed with early stage ALZ. She began having more hallucinations while she is sleeping in her bedroom. She hears people outside of her bedroom door, sometimes knocking, and then other times hears them chatting in her living room. Her apartment is 1 bedroom about 700 sq ft. It's so frustrating to hear her talk about it, what tips does anyone have with how best to respond when she makes these claims? I have a baby monitor that I am going to install (at her request) to she can look at the monitor when she hears "the visitors". To her this is very real, but it's hard to be patient when she does not have the ability to rationalize anything.

M1

welcome to the forum. Two thoughts: it could be sensory processing problems, rather than true hallucinations—but this is hard to distinguish. My partner (now late stage 6) cannot interpret a lot of things she both sees and hears. Whether to intervene may depend on whether she is disturbed by this or not. If she comments on it but is not upset, you don't necessarily have to intervene.

The other thought is that if it is occuring mainly at night, perhaps it is dream related. Some of the dementia meds including Aricept/donepezil and Namenda/memantine are very bad for causing vivid dreams and nightmares, and if she is on any such meds you may want to consider stopping them. Benefit is questionable anyway in many people.