Hello All,

My mother has recently been dx'd with dementia after a hospitalization for her physical issues with weakness/being unable to walk from her neuropathy also resulted in profound confusion with periods of delerium and hallucinations.

During her physical rehabilitation at a rehab facility, many of her cognitive issues did clear considerably. She is technically alert and oriented to person, time, and place, but she is NOT "all there". Our biggest issues in managing her at home are not because of her physical needs, but more about her mental needs and considerations. For over a year now, she has had difficulties with reasoning, made many mistakes with meds and appointments, has inappropriate affect/responses at times, is increasingly irritable, and just plain a "biatch" to be around. That is NOT her normal personality. The persistent anger and irritability was a big change last year.

We've had issues with her primary doctor not addressing our concerns, her primary feels she is "just an angry old woman who wants to be left alone until she dies." I don't believe that's an accurate assessment of who my mom is, it's just how she's acting now.....I believe there is a cause for these changes in her personality and behavior. I think the recent dx of dementia makes sense, but now we are home and my mom and my dad are reluctant to change primary docs (my dad sees the same doc and really likes her)

Mom had been on Prozac for over 20 years. Last year we took her to a psychiatrist who changed her to Effexor last summer. By fall, we saw a significant change and she was happier some of the time. In December, she saw that doc and said she didn't feel she was depressed and wanted to stop the medication and seeing that doc.

Since her last hospitalization, mom is on Aricept and is using Ativan 1mg at bedtime and 0.5 mg at 4 pm to decrease the sundowning issues. She will be seeing a new neurologist next week.

I'm wondering if my fellow caregivers out there have found effective meds to help with some of these troubling symptoms. What type of doctor helped you the most in working on managing the symptoms of dementia ? What types of meds did they try and what helped/didn't help ?

Thanks for any suggestions.