Mother is seeing insects at night

tinaluvsoils

I am new here. My mother was diagnosed 5 years ago and does fairly well considering. She has recently started hallucinating seeing insects flying on her ceiling at night, and even when she first wakes up. She says they disappear when I come in or she starts getting up. I mentioned it to her neuro after the first event, but now it is every morning. She is hiding all the way under the covers from them at night.

H1235

Welcome. I’m glad you found us. If there is no anxiety associated with the hallucinations, then I think most would say just let it go. Since she is scared I would let the doctor know that things have escalated and it’s probably affecting her sleep. There are medications that may help. I her neurologist won’t prescribe something, you might try her pcp. A geriatric physic is really the best, but they can be very hard to get into, if you even have one in your area.

tinaluvsoils

Our neuro is at a Memory Disorder Clinic. Dr. Monica Crane.

​fesk

Please also rule out a UTI or other any other infection. Once that is done, the doctor can prescribe something to help.

tigersmom

My mother developed this delusion in her late 80s. My niece the psychiatrist said it is called delusional parasitosis. In other words, seeing bugs that are not there. It was controlled by a daily dose of risperidone, which she remained on for the rest of her life. If they stopped the drug when she was hospitalized, the delusions came right back. It sounds like this is frightening to your mom, and should be addressed with meds. A geriatric psychiatrist, if you have them in your area, is the best person to prescribe these drugs. Good luck. They worked for my mom.