Guest guest Posted December 28, 2007 Report Share Posted December 28, 2007 How does this differ from hallucinations? Gladys -- awareness Hi Everyone, My mom's situation is deteriorating gradually and steadily. We are still waiting for a NH placement. The caregivers in her building have increased their monitoring and of course I am as involved as ever and even more. Her hallucinations and Capgras Syndrome are increasing so I will ask to have her Seroquel increased a bit. She only takes 25mg 2x per day at this time. When she first started taking it there seemed to be a positive effect, so hopefully another slight increase will help. We play along with her hallucinations, but with the Capgras we try to stress that she is in her own apartment so that she won't leave. She even thinks that the food in her fridge belongs to someone else. A major concern that I have is that everytime she comes out of a situation, or says something that is off base, she says that she is going crazy or is stupid. Are your loved ones as aware and as verbal as my mom seems to be about her 'mistakes' (her word)? I could handle all of the behaviours that are evident more easily if I knew that she were not so aware and upset. She has even said that maybe she is hallucinating or dreaming. I'm just curious to know if she is unusual in her degree of awareness or is this common. Doris, daughter of Ramona, 78yrs old, first diagnosed with AD in Sep 2004, then changed to LBD in March of 2005. Living independently with much support until now. On waiting list for NH. Meds: Reminyl, Wellbutrin and Seroquel. (Mississauga, Canada) Welcome to LBDcaregivers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2007 Report Share Posted December 28, 2007 Hi Gladys, I don't know the technical explanation, although I think there might be a link on the site. I can describe what we see as the difference. Re Capgras: Last week she would look at the furniture in her apartment and say things like, " that table is a little different from mine " or " those chairs are higher than mine " . She was also surprised that the apartment is hers. She thinks she lives somewhere else and is just living or 'working' there. She has also said that she has moved and keeps describing the building to me such as she just " found out where to go to get her mail " . She has lived in this building for five years. Re Hallucinations: Today she met me outside her building when I went to get her to take her to my place for dinner, looking for two little boys. She was so concerned that she had left them all alone and what was going to happen to her, were they going to fire her and would the boys get home safely. After much probing I figured out that she had been babysitting the boys and because she knew that I was coming she wanted to get them ready to go home so she wouldn't be late for me. (We are never telling her ahead of time that we are coming from now on). She rushed them out and then let them go and then she started to worry that she had done something wrong. One of the caregivers met her in the hallway while she was looking for the boys and told her they would put up notices and not to worry. Then when I got there and we went up to her apartment I called the caregiving office and pretended that the mother of the boys had called to say that they were safely home. That seemed to calm her down, but then she got worried that they would think she was crazy. So the hallucinations seem to be changing situations that happen on the spur of the moment. The Capgras seems to be not recognizing people or places as they really are and seems to be more consistent. I don't know if this is a good explanation, but it's the best I can think of. Take care. Doris Doris, daughter of Ramona, 78yrs old, first diagnosed with AD in Sep 2004, then changed to LBD in March of 2005. Living independently with much support until now. On waiting list for NH. Meds: Reminyl, Wellbutrin and Seroquel. (Mississauga, Canada) awareness Hi Everyone, My mom's situation is deteriorating gradually and steadily. We are still waiting for a NH placement. The caregivers in her building have increased their monitoring and of course I am as involved as ever and even more. Her hallucinations and Capgras Syndrome are increasing so I will ask to have her Seroquel increased a bit. She only takes 25mg 2x per day at this time. When she first started taking it there seemed to be a positive effect, so hopefully another slight increase will help. We play along with her hallucinations, but with the Capgras we try to stress that she is in her own apartment so that she won't leave. She even thinks that the food in her fridge belongs to someone else. A major concern that I have is that everytime she comes out of a situation, or says something that is off base, she says that she is going crazy or is stupid. Are your loved ones as aware and as verbal as my mom seems to be about her 'mistakes' (her word)? I could handle all of the behaviours that are evident more easily if I knew that she were not so aware and upset. She has even said that maybe she is hallucinating or dreaming. I'm just curious to know if she is unusual in her degree of awareness or is this common. Doris, daughter of Ramona, 78yrs old, first diagnosed with AD in Sep 2004, then changed to LBD in March of 2005. Living independently with much support until now. On waiting list for NH. Meds: Reminyl, Wellbutrin and Seroquel. (Mississauga, Canada) Welcome to LBDcaregivers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2007 Report Share Posted December 28, 2007 Capgras syndrome is a delusional syndrome. Delusions and hallucinations are different. Quoting Dr. Galvin (on the LBDA SAC): " A hallucination is the sensory perception (seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling) something that isn't really there - often can be triggered by a real object that is misperceived. The person can be convinced that a hallucination is not real. A delusion is a fixed, false belief that a person cannot be dissuaded from - paranoid, persecutory, phantom boarder (someone living in the house), spousal infidelity - even if the person says you've convinced them, they don't really beleive the explanation and go right back to the delusional state. " How does this differ from hallucinations? Gladys -- awareness Hi Everyone, My mom's situation is deteriorating gradually and steadily. We are still waiting for a NH placement. The caregivers in her building have increased their monitoring and of course I am as involved as ever and even more. Her hallucinations and Capgras Syndrome are increasing so I will ask to have her Seroquel increased a bit. She only takes 25mg 2x per day at this time. When she first started taking it there seemed to be a positive effect, so hopefully another slight increase will help. We play along with her hallucinations, but with the Capgras we try to stress that she is in her own apartment so that she won't leave. She even thinks that the food in her fridge belongs to someone else. A major concern that I have is that everytime she comes out of a situation, or says something that is off base, she says that she is going crazy or is stupid. Are your loved ones as aware and as verbal as my mom seems to be about her 'mistakes' (her word)? I could handle all of the behaviours that are evident more easily if I knew that she were not so aware and upset. She has even said that maybe she is hallucinating or dreaming. I'm just curious to know if she is unusual in her degree of awareness or is this common. Doris, daughter of Ramona, 78yrs old, first diagnosed with AD in Sep 2004, then changed to LBD in March of 2005. Living independently with much support until now. On waiting list for NH. Meds: Reminyl, Wellbutrin and Seroquel. (Mississauga, Canada) Welcome to LBDcaregivers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 Doris nailed what we see as well. The Capgras gives her two sets of environments. the furniture is always an issue, and she talks about going back home, even though she has lived her for 45+ years in this house. The kids are part of the Lewy Body hallucinations. She has similiar instances with the children as Doris mentions. One time she refused to leave to get her hair done until we searched the entire house for the children. I had to call my husband and pretend the kids were with him, and that we could safely leave. Since we know about the kids now, it is easier to deal with them. the first time was the scariest. Now I try to get her talk about them and that kind of makes them evaporate from her mind. Hope that helps! Knowing you are dealing with two separate things is also helpful when talking with the doctor. Otherwise, we seem like we have early onset CapBody LewyGras ourselves. Carol --------------------------------- Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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