Change in Personality after Pace-Maker Implant

[sharrona12001]

We have noticed a change in our 91-year-old mother's personality since she had a pace-maker implanted April 12, 2014.  Is this normal?  We are concerned!

[Artaud]

My mother, quite sick, in the hospital, and my wife and I received a call that we need to come in, they didn't expect her to live through the day. She was even sporting a "Do not Resuscitate" wrist band. Decisions were made, surgery was done, and they provided her with a pacemaker. At that time, she had shortly after moved into a home (big place, they have a visiting hair dresser, play games, have a bar (no alcohol, but it has the ambiance).

Several things. My mother had a defibrillator component to her pacemaker, and this fired-off once when it shouldn't have. Be sure your mother is not experiencing something similar, it could be unnerving. For my mother, they ablated the SA Node and made her pacemaker dependent, somehow that would stop the erroneous defib discharges, or so we were told.

My mother, new in the home, and new with the pacemaker, was a lunatic, we again thought the worst. But over several weeks, and with the help of a niece that works in the medical field, she was able to steer the prescribing doctors into changing the types and amounts of her medicine.

The result, she's 93, and she seems like a new person. We're grateful to the technology that made her life extension possible, and for the doctors that were willing to listen and tweak her medications. If your mother is pacemaker dependent, be sure that the heart rate is suitable for her, too slow may mean too tired, too fast may make her anxious. Doctors (specialized) can interrogate the pacemaker with a device to see how it's working, the rate, and events, and they can also change the heart rate.

[Jerry_NJ]

I do not believe a pacemaker in-and-of-itself can cause a change in personality.   However, the fact that one needs a pacemaker may be depressing emotionally and also cause anxiety.  I am only 75 (compared to 91) and I know dealing with aging is difficult at best... I men when one feels "good" as can be expected (of course less than desired).  

You may want to try a post on Senior Health or on Anxiety.   You didn't say how the personality changed, I assume for the worse: glum, disinterested, angry, sullen ....????