Sundown syndrome

[mksalem]

My best friend Female) of almost 50 years is experiencing , what seems to be sundowners syndrome. She is 60 years old and there aren't any other symptons that would lead me to think that she has early-onset AD. She is, however suffering from job-related stress. It seems that around 5 or 6 o'clock in the evening, she begins to have trouble focusing on conversations and some strange episodes of memory loss. Without being too wordy, I'll try to describe a few examples:
    1) As she started to take a loaf of bread out of a grocery sack, her stepson asked her if she had bought bread, to which she replied "No, I'm sorry. I forgot." By this time, she was holding the bread in full view.
     2)My husband and I were at her (and her husband's) house for a short visit. We were there for about 30 minutes just sitting and talking. After the 30 minutes she and I went into the kitchen for something and after about 2 minutes she asked if I wanted to stay for a few minutes- as if I had just walked in the door.
     3) At a 4th of July cookout at her house the other day, I put out a container of strawberries and some chocolate dipping sauce. Her older sister and I were discussing its decadance (my friend right ther looking into the container of strawberries). Her sister remarked how good they (the strawberries) looked to which my friend remarked "mmm- what are they? Her sister made a joke out of it and just gave me a quizzical glance.
     In addition to these examples, when evening rolls around, she also gets a blank look on her face with kind of a painted-on smile and seems to have medium degree of  difficulty keeping up with conversations (i.e short, uncertain responses, very little vocal contributions, etc.)
     What I'm wondering is, could this be stress-related sundowning or something else? Her short-term memory seems fine and her only health issues are arthritis and obesity as well as complaing os always being tired and stressed out from work- nursing in a private practice. Any suggestions? MKSalem

[margypops]

Is she on any meds are certain meds affect short term memory , if she does she could ask her Doctor about it..if you find out what the meds are called you can google for symptoms of any side effects, I must say that episodes you have described sound as if something is going on, but there are other ailments can cause this so if it can be broached to her a blood panel may be good with a visit to the Doctor,Good luck let us know how it goes with her.