Alcohol and dementia

Welcome. Sorry about your husband’s diagnosis. Your husband has Anosognosia which is a condition in which a person with a disability is cognitively unaware of having it due to an underlying physical condition like dementia. He is unable to comprehend he has dementia and may be incapable of realizing he’s an alcoholic. Talk to his doctor. Alcoholism can cause dementia due to vitamin deficiency. He should be checked for that. I know that others on this forum have LOs who have drinking problems. Hopefully they will answer your post.. If he’s driving he shouldn’t be. If not, who is buying the liquor for him? I remember posts about watering down the liquor gradually to at least cut back. You are at the right place for info and support.

What type of alcohol is he drinking? is it something you could water down or buy a non alcoholic version to substitute.

Hi and welcome. I am sorry for your reason to be here but pleased you found this place.

The intersection between alcohol use disorder and dementia is not an easy place to be. I have some experience with the two conditions as my dad had an ARD called Wernicke-Kosakoff's along with Alzheimer's and had a drinking problem since the death of my sister who had been his mini-me.

Has your DH been diagnosed by a neurologist? Dad was diagnosed as the result of a psychotic episode that landed him in the ED where the neurology resident started IV Thiamine immediately after his blood draw. Although the blood test showed "low-normal" Thiamine a week or so later when it came back, the course of IV Thiamine, his symptoms and a PET scan confirmed his WKS diagnosis. Dad did recover some cognitive function with the Thiamine and abstinence while in a SNF upon discharge, but the gains were soon lost once he was home and drinking again.

Dad had a degree of anosognosia around his cognitive changes, so reasoning with him was pointless. I explored a Geriatric Substance 28-Day Rehab, but given his lack of working memory and motivation the director told me he would not be successful. Choosing sobriety requires learning to identify triggers, learn ways to work around them and recognize when to employ those strategies— skills he no longer had sadly.

We did work with a geriatric psychiatrist on medication for mood and anxiety. Dad's geri psych prescribed Wellbutrin to help activate him a bit and while it didn't do that, it did seem to lessen his need to consume a lot of alcohol. There are some meds that can be trialed including the GLP-1 prescribed off-label. Once he was on Wellbutrin (which is used for smoking, too) things got easier and he might be happy with a single glass.

I found most of SDianeL's google search to be ineffective to dangerous in practice. I suspect this was a U.K. or Canadian site as we don't have a "u" in behavior and I have never heard of "Do Not Deliver" list or a "local liquor commission" policing adults.

I've heard of folks watering drinks or offering N/A versions but that went horribly bad for us. Dad's brain was damaged; his palate was intact. I even tried using his favorite wine's bottles to serve but he knew it wasn't his beloved Kendall- Jackson.

Not having wine in the house or refusing to buy it lead to aggression and abuse. It simply wasn't safe to have him at home under those circumstances. Trying to limit amounts only led to him finishing a bottle and opening another. His appetite for alcohol did lessen as the disease progressed but that may have been related to the Alzheimer's.

The one change that could have worked was placement. Alas, dad had lost $360K earlier in the disease and there wasn't money for him to be placed in stage 4 because he could have spent down without being progressed enough for a Medicaid SNF bed. Additionally, in this scenario mom would be very limited in care options should she need AL at some point.

HB