RE: increase in seroquel

[Guest guest]

HI Joan,

I think that if your gut is telling you something that you should look

into it and probably go with it. Have you been able to bring in an LBD

brochure for the medios to look at?

Courage

joansteveh1 wrote:

>

> Two weeks ago my mothers seroquel was increased from 37.5-75mg

> (nightly dose). After 10 days a morning dose of Celexa 20mg was

> added. Did not question psychiatrist about adding new drug so soon

> after increasing seroquel- now I am. My mother has been

> acting " random " at times, not the usual behavior we are accustomed to

> seeing. Last night she was really " off " , conversation all over the

> place. The nurse tried to get in touch with the DR. but no returned

> call, so I told the nurse no Celexa this am until we talk with him.

> i know medication can do a job on people- my mother had an adverse

> reaction to Zyprexa after just a few dosages- which at the time, the

> staff said " oh no, the medicine could not react so quickly " well we

> all know that the neuroleptic meds are brutal to a Lewy person.

> Seroquel is considered an typical neuroleptic, have had okay results

> when she was on 37.5, could 75 be too much, everyone is different I

> know that. But I am also annoyed that my observations of my mother

> are often poohooed. The one thing I know, is that I know more about

> Lewy Body D than many in the medical or I should say

> Alzheimer/dementia care world. It's one thing to help level the

> paranoia that my mother has, but not to contribute to it. Any

> comments welcome. I read in other posts that Seroquel helped some,

> and not others. I really think i need to trust my gut instinct and

> take her off the Celexa (for depression) and go back to the 37.5.

> After rereading lots of info on Lewy, I wonder if it is best to just

> let the disease run its course. The reason we had increased my

> mothers seroquel was because she was becoming more verbal with her

> sexual stories and were afraid that she would scare off the friends

> that she has made. Enough babbling, I'm off to the pharmacy to talk

> with the pharmacist about drug interactions.

>

>

>

>

>

> Welcome to LBDcaregivers.

>

>

>

>

> ---------------------------------------------------------------

>

[Guest guest]

joan,

go with your gut feeling, lbd patient have a hard time with almost any

medication, andone thing our neuro said here was slow slow slow, he had to add

and change things very slowly and give dad a chance to 'get used ' to the

medicine changes.

as far the medical world, one hting i miss here versus in tennessee at

vanderbilt univ. med center is thta there the doctos value my input about my own

case, they thrive on knowing how i feel, what i think but here i am suppose dto

value their opinions but to them i am just wasting there time, they do not seem

eager to learn from me. they already know it all, so i ndertan your feeelings

about teaching the medical system anything new. sigh, maybe some day. hugx

sharon

Date: 2005/02/18 Fri AM 09:16:36 EST

To: LBDcaregivers

Subject: increase in seroquel

Two weeks ago my mothers seroquel was increased from 37.5-75mg

(nightly dose). After 10 days a morning dose of Celexa 20mg was

added. Did not question psychiatrist about adding new drug so soon

after increasing seroquel- now I am. My mother has been

acting " random " at times, not the usual behavior we are accustomed to

seeing. Last night she was really " off " , conversation all over the

place. The nurse tried to get in touch with the DR. but no returned

call, so I told the nurse no Celexa this am until we talk with him.

i know medication can do a job on people- my mother had an adverse

reaction to Zyprexa after just a few dosages- which at the time, the

staff said " oh no, the medicine could not react so quickly " well we

all know that the neuroleptic meds are brutal to a Lewy person.

Seroquel is considered an typical neuroleptic, have had okay results

when she was on 37.5, could 75 be too much, everyone is different I

know that. But I am also annoyed that my observations of my mother

are often poohooed. The one thing I know, is that I know more about

Lewy Body D than many in the medical or I should say

Alzheimer/dementia care world. It's one thing to help level the

paranoia that my mother has, but not to contribute to it. Any

comments welcome. I read in other posts that Seroquel helped some,

and not others. I really think i need to trust my gut instinct and

take her off the Celexa (for depression) and go back to the 37.5.

After rereading lots of info on Lewy, I wonder if it is best to just

let the disease run its course. The reason we had increased my

mothers seroquel was because she was becoming more verbal with her

sexual stories and were afraid that she would scare off the friends

that she has made. Enough babbling, I'm off to the pharmacy to talk

with the pharmacist about drug interactions.

Welcome to LBDcaregivers.

[Guest guest]

>

>Two weeks ago my mothers seroquel was increased from 37.5-75mg

>(nightly dose). After 10 days a morning dose of Celexa 20mg was

>added. Did not question psychiatrist about adding new drug so soon

>after increasing seroquel- now I am.

It is always a good idea to question the wisdom of the medications.

Medications were the cause of a huge decline in my mother. I joined the list

this past December when my mother had ended up in the hospital in an

unresponsive state.

Her medication regimen began many years ago when she was being evaluated for

dementia. Zoloft was started because the doctors thought she might get

depressed. Then different brain chemical type drugs like exelon , aricept

etc were tried and she continued on with the aricept, eventually they also

added reminyl. She had significant hallucinations in the middle of this and

antipsychotics were added when they became scary and elaborate. She didn't

tolerate these well after a while but they remained and eventually a study

drug was also added by the Memory Clinic.

Then she started not sleeping and falling. A psychiatrist was called in.

Lots of frequent changes were made on a weekly basis. It all kept getting

worse and then she crashed. She was in the hospital for 4 days and then the

nursing home for 4 weeks. The first nine days she received only IV fluids

and no food because she couldnt wake up.

Now she is the best she has been in a long time and is only taking reminyl.

She can walk independently without falling and her sleep is great (although

borderline - I think that problem is going to reappear). She hallucinates

but very manageable non distressing stuff. Because of this her diagnosis has

been changed from Alzheimers to Lewy Body.

Any way my point is, that over time the medications that my mom was taking

became unimportant to her well being and harmful to her as well. She was

having side effects or effects of the meds interacting. Looking back I wish

I had insisted that medication changes were made much more slowly and

conservatively by the psychiatrist. But really the decline actually

benefited her in the long run because she got off everything but the

reminyl.

Best wishes to all

Deb