Suggestions on "sedatives" please

Laurie1282

My HWA at stage 6 needs a sedative to help with increasing agitation and sleeplessness. He tried seroquel and trazadone but he reacted very poorly to both. They made his wakefulness and confusion worse and caused a couple of falls due to increased "wobblyness". Basically, they reacted just the opposite and made his behaviors worse. What are some other options your loved ones have tried? We are considering haldol and possibly gummies. Any suggestions??

DWTired

Wanting to know as well….My DH is trying Seroquel now… he has started getting up at 5 am… was going to increase dose to see if it helps. Still having outburst. What mg did your DH try?

Despondent

I am in the same place as Laurie 1282. My DH is in Stage 6, except psych doc started him on Rexulti. He has a closet ful of samples because I could not afford this drug. He is not a Geri psych but a good doc and we are limited in options in our area. My DH didn't respond well to 1mg. Increased it to 2mg. The aggitation, hallucinations, lack of sleep got worse. The bottom fell out last Wed. He was so agitated, could not sit still. Kept talking about his delusions. I can't understand him anymore but give him my undivided attention. I'm able to pick up an occasional word so I know it's all hallucinations and delusions. He has gone through every part of the house drawers, cabinets and leaves them on the floor or relocates them. I emailed doc asking for help. He responded that we could try Trazadone for sleep and he would add on Seroquel,if I wanted. So ball is in my court but this happened so fast and I didn't know anything about these drugs. So I went online reading this forum, watching alk the YouTube videos that seemed relative. The only conclusion I came up with putting him back on Namenda. Found Geri psych dr. who has treated dimensia exclusively for 20 years. He advised not taking them off donepazil or Namenda. He said unless there are bad side effects which my husband didn't have, it's best to keep them on it. He said especially don't go Cold Turkey which is what happened with my husband. He said he had a patient who's wife stopped him cold turkey, and he had an immediate deterioration where he couldn't feed himself anymore. He got the man back on the Namenda and he regained almost everything he lost. I emailed Dr last Thurs and have heard nothing. I thought of going to ER but felt, I would waste at least 12hrs if not more and they would just start playing with meds maybe put him on fluids and send him home. We didn't get any vaccines this year always do but kept putting it off. So when I hear Grass done and Seroquel, I am scared. Definitely out of my league! Sorry this got so long but I needed to vent. I am all alone, no family, no money to get help, no daycares. Only thing is a nursing home but I didn't want to warehouse him but I am 72 have some health issues and have to keep everything together.

Jeanne C.

my husband did well on a combination of Lexapro and Risperdal for a while. We occasionally had to adjust dosage. Eventually we added trazodone at night to help reduce fragmented sleep.

blacksparky

My DW takes a muscle relaxer (Flexerall) before bed and she sleeps like a baby. She’s not yet at the hallucinations stage yet so not sure what I will do then.

Quilting brings calm

Mirtrazipine( generic Remeron) worked better than trazadone for my mom.

Anna2022

My DH takes Trazodone for sleep and it helps a lot. He's taken this for several years.

We had to increase his Sertraline to 100mg recently due to agitation. He now also has a prescription for Ativan to use as needed when his agitation goes sky-high. This was all necessary after an episode of extreme agitation and repetitive behaviors that might have harmed him. It took two doctors (his geri-psych and PCP) one month to get the prescriptions written. Our health "care" system is a joke. But now at least I have something in the cabinet when the next episode hits.

Jazzma

My DH was on Seroquel am and pm and Trazodone in the evenings after a stay at the hospital. He had very difficult sundowning starting around 2:30 in the afternoon and In the evenings he was like a zombie — walking around with eyes half-open, running into things, wouldn't sit down. In hindsight I think he was overmedicated. Nine months down the road he now takes 50mg Seroquel in the morning and at 6:30 in the evening, with a 25mg dose at 2 pm to ease through sundowning. Trazodone 100mg at 8:00 pm so it's a bit separated from the evening Seroquel. Overall this seems to be working, though he sometimes wanders around the facility until late at night.

jsps139_

My DH was having delusions, hallucinations, and angry outbursts at me, as well as waking up during the night. Dr started with 25mg of Seroquel at bedtime. It worked for a few months and then he needed a dosage change to 50mg at bedtime because the anxiety and agitation came back. Dr adjusted again to 50mg in the am and 50 mg at bedtime. That was the sweet spot - he sleeps all night, the delusions and hallucinations are very rare now, and although the angry outbursts do still happen occasionally, they are more tolerable. Remember not to look for perfection, but look for tolerable - it helps to adjust our expectations with this horrific disease.

Sorry the Seroquel didn’t work for your LO, but I thought this may help someone else who hasn’t tried meds yet.
I hope you find the right meds soon. It makes a huge difference. ❤️

DWTired

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/228863#Comment_228863

Thank You…I will give it some time for sure!!

Biggles

hi Despondent I feel so much for you my DH is in the same place as yours. Up and down during the night then up at 5am every morning I’m exhausted. Opens every drawer and takes everything out, we have a small office had 2 work stations mine is now buried under stuff pulled out of the cupboards and drawers. I have to be so careful not to lose important paperwork. He has delusions gets agitated and cranky at me. I can no longer talk easily on the phone to my 2 remaining friends as DM gets suspicious, I’m so tired no one really helps, our daughter is well meaning and phones morning and night I think our son, who lives away, is sadly in denial. I’m 75 my DH is 77 medications always affect him badly and I am reluctant to have him try any new ones because of his adverse reaction. I wonder what the future holds.

Biggles

ImMaggieMae

Risperidone am and pm that he has taken for about 3 years. For sundowning which starts around 1:30pm these days and goes to about 7:30pm, 100 mg gabapentin because it makes him a little sleepy. He also takes 300mg gabapentin plus 6mg melatonin before bedtime and usually sleeps through the night. The nighttime gabapentin was for neuropathy and leg cramps, but a side effect was sleepiness. I asked his neurologist if we could use that during the day, 100mg for agitation. We tried trazadone but it didn’t seem to help at all. The 100 gabapentin does help but takes over an hour to start working. He also takes memantine (generic Namenda) in the am and pm, which I think is very helpful for empathy and maybe a little calming?

Everyone is so different and things do change, so I hope suggestions given here might help in your case. I certainly appreciate the question. It’s helpful to know what other things to try.

Edited to add: We tried Seroquel in the beginning that worked for a very short time at a very low dose. Increased dosage twice over a short time without much success. It was probably still too low of a dose. People here seem to have success with increasing the dosage in the beginning. Risperidone worked better for him. Dosage increased once.

midge333

Seroquel worked wonders for my DW. She started on a low dose but the dose needed to be increased every month or two until we found her sweet spot - 75 mg twice a day.

KathyF1

Klonozipan has worked well for my DH, along with Seroquel. I’ve been told it is a mild version of Xanax. It helps with agitation and helps him sleep.

DrNani

I feel your pain. Certainly you’re not alone with my DW, currently I am her 24/7 coming off a 5 night respite donated by hospice, who seems a little concerned with. My health, the 17 struagt months of care taking and lack of help, we do have our daughter and son in law, to shop and help very occasionally with her.oir daughter, raised apparently to always respect parents, has not transitioned to tell my DW what to do. Or not Do. we have a friend who is a lifesaver to relieve me for 2-4hoirs in morning follow me to actually try to sleep. The. Meds have been very similar to most of the others who already have answered. What I have recently experienced has been to try to exhaust her a bit and keep her up a little more During the later evening. We have stopped trying all the anti psychotic antidepressants etc. Strict lyrics on benzodiazepines, morphine (PRN ONLY) her thyroid and s little test of Trazedone. Last night albeit after she clobbered me in the back of the head with a heavy paper role stainless steal holder, which o am still concerned I may have an injury from. She was up over night at. Least 14 x to turn the heat off it was 30degrees when I woke up. Eat things that are not food like styrofoam and I don’t know where she found. Pieces of wall, while she pulled everything out of our drawers. It was my fault for forgetting the baby proof door locks, and that darn door alarm I meant to buy!
in the end, tonight as I watch her sleep, no matter how much she annoys me, tries to kill me, I’ve never loved anyone like I do her. Her eyes have grown older, and her skin has become wrinkled, but that woman has the same grace I I’ve loved from the moment I first saw her. I miss my DW so much, most days she never stops by to see me, the demon-cha+cha* has consumed my DW. But, by some off chance I get to talk to my DW, for a moment, you bet I’ll want to be present. I hope you will find something that helps.