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155056 tn?1333638688

Could My Mother Be Bi-polar?

I ususally post on another forum, but, in light of the past 8 months of my mother's life, maybe you can help shed some light.  My mom is 79 years old...since I was a kid she was treated for depression and anxiety, by her GP.  She was on every antidepressant known to man.  Back in Oct of last year, she stopped taking her meds (at the time zoloft and clonipin)  As we tried to her back on the meds the reaction was horrible, she was angry, agitated, nasty, mean,  hurtful as well as hallucinating, and being delusional.....after a couple of trips to the ER with no diagnosis other then a toxic pharm telling us the meds were wrong for her....she ended up in a geratric psych unit where all they did was give her haldol...finally got her into rehab, she got sick, was in the hospital and detox off of everything...she was good, just depressed, and the psych started her back on the zoloft and clonipin, which started the episodes, then he switched her to paxil and xanax (same class of drugs)....enter new psych...he feels that she is bi-polar and is treating her with seroquel....it has been about 10 days, and she still seems to have about 3-4 hours a day of this uncontrollable behavior....do you think that she is bi-polar?  How long before the meds should help?  She is still on a low dose, she gets 50mgs 2 x per day and 150 at night....and they are giving her haldol as needed, but no more than 3 mgs a day....the haldol does nothing, she calms down after about 3 hours.  I feel like I don't know what to do to help her....they have diagnosed her as demential...I can't buy it, she was fine, caring for her self, etc living alone, and within 2 weeks became so bad.  Any comments, suggestions or kind words would greatly be appreciated.
Pam
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155056 tn?1333638688
I appreciate everyone's comments. Xila - she stopped her meds because she was having issues swallowing, which was her thyroid, she crushed them for a while but hated the taste and stopped taking them.  She was recently in the hospital, April, we almost lost her, turned out to be her gall bladder, had it removed and was great, even came back from the hospital detoxed off of all AD's etc and was great...totally lucid, but depressed, they started her back on the ADs and anti-anxiety...and BOOM....it started all over again.
ILADVOCATE - our plan is to get her stable enough to take her out of the nursing home to go see a neuro psych, toxic pharmocologist...anyone we can.  She was seen by a gerontologist who believes she has "depressional dementia"...the past year has been very rough for my mom, she lost her sister who was her best friend, her brother in law, her other brother in law went into a nursing home, she fell and broke her arm.

They have upped the dose of the Seroquel to 400 mgs, the pysch says this is the highest dose and he has seen miracles at this dose...so, let's hope.

Thanks again!!!!
Pam

Helpful - 0
585414 tn?1288941302
There are warnings on the prescription labels about the use of antipsychotics in elderly people with dementia. The best thing to do is to have her see a gerontologist who could make a conclusive diagnosis as to whether she has dementia and the cause of the dementia. There are medications specifically to treat dementia such as Namenda but only a doctor could make a decision as to what the right medication is for her but she should sea a doctor who has a full understanding of what is going on which would be a gerontologist as the cause of the dementia would need to be diagnosed as well for follow up purposes.
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952564 tn?1268368647
I don't know, it is confusing to me since you say she was on ADs for so long with no mania. But you say she suddenly stopped taking them. Any idea why? It is very hard I'm sure.

I also thought dementia when I read it, or something happened to cause it suddenly. I know we have a patient here whose husband was the sweetest man but alzheimer's took his personality and twisted it and now he screams and yells at his wife and calls her names, etc. She has come in crying over it many times. Also, when my mom was in her last few months something happened to her suddenly. She was fine, normal, always talkitive, etc. Then one day she woke up and talked in what psych doctors call "word salad" for several hours. She could not communicate with us, just kept saying random words and was obviously distressed. Then it went away for a while, then would come back, go away. I was only a kid at the time so it was terrifying. My mom had breast cancer, we never learned what caused her mind to suddenly slip that way.

Anyway, my point is that other illness could be causing it. :(
Helpful - 0
155056 tn?1333638688
She has had CT Scans, MRI's etc....nothing "physically" shows.....at one point they said, she might have the early signs of alzheimers as there is some slowing in the brain, but that is when she was on 6mgs of haldol...everyone's brain will show slowing.  When she was in the hosptial and detoxed, the attending geriatric physican believed she had "depressional dementia" and should be seen by a neuro psych...the problem now is getting her stable enough to take her out.  I know that my mom is experiencing some sort of mental disorder, but, I just can't buy that it is dementia...doesn't happen so fast and there are moments when she is totally with it and coherent and calm and herself....then the fits starts for a couple of hours...she too was the most docile person ever, never cursed never showed anger...but not now.
Thanks Yarrow, I appreciate the comments.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I'm so sorry about your mom's troubles and your difficulties in dealing with her and her docs.  

It looks like complicated diagnosis problem, what with her quitting the meds, going back on them, and so on.  But one factor doesn't seem to have been addressed:

You say she was doing OK beforehand, living alone and caring for herself, and went downhill within two weeks.  That's fast!   I have seen something like this with my own FIL, a gentle man who never even swore, and all of a sudden at age 72 became profane and difficult.  A later CT scan showed that he had had a stroke in the left prefrontal cortex of his brain, a region very much involved in personality and the ability to control your emotions.  He didn't have any paralysis or anything like that:  He just became emotionally impossible.

You might want to ask if the docs have imaged your mom's brain.  At her age, a stroke is a possibility.
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