Hi ,   I am going through the same.  I also have been looking for an answer too.  Have you been able to find anything?     I have had people tell me they have had some success with medications we are now trying Risperdal.  It makes her sleep all day and I don't like that for my mother.  Today I will try 1/2dose to see if that helps.

Desperate,   WRS

Hi! I just recently had a really horrible day with my 90 year old mother-in-law due to aggression. For some reason, out of the blue, she decided I was evil incarnate and I could not get her to calm down. She was yelling and screaming at me for about 8 hours. I had her nurse come out (we have brought in a palative care group) and sneak her Halidol (anti-psychotic) meds to her. That should have knocked her out. Of course, it did nothing. Later, her doctor suggested I give her a double dose or take her to the hospital. Still nothing. Finally gave her a third doseage and she calmed down. She has gone through stages where she has accused me of plotting against her to convince her and everyone else that she is losing her mind -- that I can handle. But, the pure hatred she was showing me that day was very unnerving. I know that its the disease, but, hard to think of that when you are in the middle of such a confrontation. I was alone with her most of the time, so had no help to distract her. I tried to stay away from her to keep her mind off of her anger, but, she would come looking for me and start yelling all over. She was convinced the police had come here to tell her that something really bad is going on in the house and they were going to send someone to take her out of here. I have to say that day was the worst day I have had with her, so far. I was sobbing constantly. That's not like me. But, when you love someone and you devote every second of your day to their care, its hard when they turn on you. Normally, she considers me her best friend and tells everyone how much she loves me. Now, I have to realize that day will not be a one time only occurence and that I need help. I can no longer do this on my own. I arranged to get some help in here for 2 days a week, but, she is saying she doesn't want or need them. I explained that I need the help and she is still fighting it. If I don't get the help, I'm not going to be able to continue to take care of her. My health issues (there are numerous) are declining now. I have a surgery coming up next week, and all I can think about is if she is going to be okay and taken care of while I recuperate. Is she going to fight whoever is taking care of her??

I took her to her doctor yesterday morning to go over all of  this with him. He actually wrote ME a script for valium and increased my anti depression medicine (he's my doctor, as well, I think I should say). LOL I definitely need it!! ; ) My husband's siblings are suggesting we look into a home for her. This is not something I want to do. I made a commitment to her and I promised her that I would take care of her . The thought of putting her in a home so saddens me. I know there are really good homes out there and we have found a couple of them. Its just not what I promised her.

DIDO your situation,      My mom is in the hospital right now and it has been nice to have the break.  I like you have the very same issues.  I am an only child, never married and my father passed away in Feb. of Dementia.

I at times feel so alone.  It's uncanny how similar are situations are.  I literally have tears in eyes as I write this.

Thanks for letting me know that I am not the only one going through this and having the same issues. 

I also was told to give my mother-in-law her anti-psychotic meds in the morning (as well as nightime) and, yes, it made her sleep all day. We have cut back to a half doseage in the morning now. She still sleeps a lot, but, is not completely out of it during the day. She will wake up and have conversations, albeit she still thinks she's on a cruise and this is a stop-over...lol After her day last Friday, I was told I can give it to her every 4 hours, as needed. The problem is that when she's in that mood, she wants nothing to do with me and doesn't trust me to give her the meds. That's when I have to call in the care group nurses to give it to her. Hopefully, giving your mother the half doseage in the morning will help you! Let us know how things are going, ok??

You are not alone here, really! There are people who care, so keep in touch!

{{{hugs}}}

four and a half years ago my mother was holding me at knife point screaming about how "she was fine," and i was the sick one with the problem.
that day i took her to the neurologist, and she lunged at the doctor and threatened HIM... i begged him not to call 911 and have her taken to geri-psych at the hospital, and he kindly agreed not to! but when i got home i called our social worker, who came to the house for "a talk."

the "talk" led to my mother signing HERSELF in to a memory care facility on a short term basis for "medication management. " it took SIX MONTHS to find the perfect combination of drugs to make her compliant and what i call "family friendly."
without the drugs she is not fit to live with "normal" people.

(aside from blood pressure meds etc,) for ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE only, (and management of its various symptoms) in the MORNING my mother takes:

100 mg of the anti-depressant ZOLOFT, an amount she worked up to from 50 mg.
this helps with her overall mood and depression.

at BEDTIME my mother takes:

10 mg of ARICEPT for memory. I don't know how much this helps, but we stick by the program... : )

100 mg of SEROQUEL. this medication is an anti-psychotic.
in my mother's case, SEROQUEL has eliminated MOST of the paranoia, and ALL of the hallucinations, dangerous behaviours, and non-compliant impulses.
best of all, SEROQUEL knocks my mother out at bedtime - eliminating wandering, nighttime episodes, and all worries that previously prevented ME from getting a good sleep. she sleeps untroubled by nightmares or disturbing dreams, and awakens refreshed.
she does need to be awakened in the morning, but once she has been roused, she is good to go.

periodically, when there are signs that her behaviour or thought patterns are deteriorating, i call the doctor and discuss the circumstance. this may lead to a request for an appointment, or there may simply be a consensus to increase a particular medication's dose - without an appointment.

i'm STILL tired (just like everyone else,) but with this regimen i have thus far avoided being killed by a little old lady wielding a large kitchen knife!

GOOD LUCK! and don't forget "COMPLIANT" and "FAMILY FRIENDLY..." (INCLUDES "safe")

c.suzanneMcable2009

As I posted a while ago about having major problems with my mothers rage. She has just been released from the hospital after a 2 month stay. This time the hospital and doctors got on board after a lot of basic begging on my part for help to control her outburst of combative behavior. Most likely because they finally got what I WAS TALKING ABOUT AS FOR THE FIRST TIME SHE HAD TO BE RESTRAINED several times. I hate that that happened and I had told them to call me and I would come to try to calm her.

We tried many different medications all of witch didn't work and made her sleep for a day or two.

So I asked the Doctors of witch none of them wanted to try my idea. In fact I was put down for even thinking of it. I have no personal experience with it but the people who use it seem to be feeling pretty good.

I'm talking about Pot yes Marijuana. I figured it was worth a try as I was desperate to try and help my sweet little 76 year old Mormon mother and ultimately help me to care for her at home.

I figured that why not let her join the 4H Club happy, high, hungry and horny.

In my search one of the Doctors who was covering for her regular Doctor, I suggested that we try MIRENAL. This is a derivative of Marijuana and has several names.

It has been 4 days now sense she started the drug and she has not had a major melt down. She did have a very small one when she was transferred to a home for rehab. The nursing home didn't have her meds ready for her when she got there so she went without it that night of the melt down.

In fact my mother is happy ( a lot more than normal) High, Hungry and I'm not sure about horny but she does flirt in her funny sweet way. My aunt and the nurses have noticed the change. I for myself hope that we have found the answer for my mother's rage and combative out burst.

I know that 4 days doesn't mean that it will work long term. But I'm doing my best to keep her from Tie Died T Shirts and a bag chips. I hope and plead that this will be a tool in helping my mother and myself manage her outburst.

Has anyone else out there tried and did it work for you? Have there been any problems that presented with it's use for this problem?

Thanks, WRS

It has been over 10 days now. My mother seems to still be happy.
She has not had a rage attack. She seems to be a bit more confused. This could be the UTI's that seem to be popping up all the time. It could be the Mirenol that could be causing the confusion or even all the other drugs that were tried to keep her calm.

But she is pleasant, calm, happy, and giggles allot.

So again I ask has any one else tried this? And if so what happened? How long did you try it for? Did you have problems with it?

I just hope that it keeps working

WRS

I just found an article on Mirenol that said a study was done and it helped about 66% of the patients with Alzheimer combative behavior.

It also said that the FDA is considering Mirenol for approval for it's use in controlling combative and rage outburst in Alzheimer's patients.

Gosh, would that not be wonderful?

At this point all I can say is it is helping my mother.

WRS

wrs,

Thank you for this post. My mother has been thru hell and has just been placed in a nursing home where I have not allowed them to give her any drugs as she is allergic to most everything and is very pure. She is very unhappy there and combative, thinks people are stealing, on a plane, etc. I am doing my best to make her "trip" a happy one, but it seems to go bad unless I am there. After speaking with my neurologist today, he said, take her off the Xanax immediately, worst drug around, and extremely addictive. I only allowed this as she is rehabing, and miserable, crying, screaming, etc., and I am afraid they will throw her out. The doctor agreed to take her off everything, but would like to put her on Zoloft. I took her scans to my doctor and he found she has had many mini strokes. I told the doctor I wanted to research more and my drug of choice for her as an anti-depressant would be Cymbalta. I will google Mirenol as it seems like a GREAT idea to me. Can you keep me posted, and also, anyone else that has had any experience with Zoloft of helping the rage, tears, sadness and "Get me out of here"?

I just found this thread today....Thank you all for your input

Hi I just got back from the Rehab center visiting with my mom, she was having a blast playing bingo ( with my help). She is still doing great. She has had a few minor moments but the Marinol seems to be working after several weeks now. So far this has been a golden gift.

I laugh a little under my breath when the staff will say that she was agitated. They have no idea about how bad it can get with her. They haven't had World War 1, 2 & 3 all in the same night as I have had.

Yes she at times will not cooperate, most of the time it is because she wants to sleep in, doen't understand well enough, or at the moment of making a request of her the delivery of the requester was off. Witch is an art in and of its self.

I will be bring her home soon so I just hope it keeps working.

Good luck in your search, I hope you find an answer that will help both you and your mom.

WRS

This is a very helpful article that I found.

I hope it helps you all!

http://homecareassistance.com/content/?c=86&p=711