Any treatments other than antipsychotic drugs to help cope with hallucinations?

Well, I think we may be on the road to recovery - partially or fully is yet to be determined. I appreciate all the input. I guess I was grasping at straws not wanting to just believe or take for granted that it was dementia and nothing could be done.

My mom's prim care phy has been taking care of her for 20 yrs and has become more of a 'bandaid' dr. You know, see her every 3-4 mos, refill her rx's and tell her when to come back. What made me so mad with him is that he prescribed Risperdal w/out even examining my mom based on my hystericals sister word.

When I had mom's care transferred to hospice she seemed to be having worse episodes - don't know if that was from the slow metabolising of the Risperdal or not. We finally got to a point that the hospice nurse suggested Seroquel. I just cringed but felt like I had to do something. I approaced it as carefully as possible give the effects of the Risperdal and only gave Mama 1/2 of a 100mg (?) tablet to start with. Within 30 minutes of taking the Seroquel she began talking gibberish, rocking back and forth in her care with here eyes as big as 50cent pieces and she was singing - "I'm going to see my mama, I'm going to see my mama". I was just beside myself - I had tried to be so careful. We ened up calling her emergency button people, ems arrived and took her to ER. She didn't want to go and fought it because she was afraid she would never come home again. In the ER they did bloodwork and she was really out of it. Didn't know her name, where she was, what year it was - nothing. In about 3 hours she managed to sleep it off though and was more coherent and able to speak with the psych nurse at the ER. She is the one who finally actually suggested that Mama needed to cut back on some of the meds she had been on for YEARS. Said that they probably had lost their efficacy or were having adverse effects instead. Thank GOD we finally found someone that didn't want to add another pill to mama's repertoire. She even suggested that we may able to get physiciatric nursing visits through a separate home health agency. It does not overlap services with hospice because hospice doesn't offer talk therapy and that is the only service we are contracting out of the home health agency.

There are two HUGE pluses to this.......the therapist is reviewing all of Mama's meds and he is calling the shots as far as getting blood work to determine the levels of her medications. The hospice nurse is working with him to ensure that the med's mama is on are correctly relayed to her hospice care. They have worked to cut mama's 100mg of zoloft in half and have added just 2mg of ability to help with her depression. She has been on this treatment for a little over two week and continues to get better. She is having less hallucinations and is happier overally. She still has times when she's seeing snakes but she just say the therapist for the 1st time this past Thursday. I think she was looking forward to just having someone to talk to other than family. It's so good to see her happy again!

I was aware of the UTI side of the coin as we've had multiple issues with that. Luckily that was not the case this time. Please all caregivers - know that these antipsychotic drugs are LAST choices. An elderly person can get overloaded on medications so easy and it seems like every doctor just wants to write a rx to pop another pill. Mama may still ultimately have some dementia but for now it seems like we are at least slowing it down and keeping it at bay.

Thanks everyone for caring and writing - LOVE YOU ALL!
Jan

Waiting foray answer on this one! My Mom has this problem and it causes no end of problem.

I also would like to hear any info on this question. mom had macular degeneration also and has started hallucinating. Doc doesnt know why. May be mini strokes, heart issues, etc.
Charles Bonnett seems logical too. They put mom on seroquel. I hope there is something else.

My Mom has been having hallucinations for three years now. She also has very vivid dreams that she believes are real. It is horrendous, causing her to be vicious at times because of things she thought she saw or heard. She is on Buspar for anxiety but that does not help.

jematthews1, are you pretty sure that your mother has Charles Bonnett syndrome? It doesn't sound like there is a treatment for that, but that most sufferers understand they are having hallucinations, and that the hallucinations generally go away on their own eventually.

UTIs can cause hallucinations. Clearing up the infection eliminates them.

Hallucinations that go with dementia can be very hard to treat. If the hallucinations are not disturbing to the person who has them there isn't any need to treat them. If what they see terrifies them, then if may be worth trying drugs under very careful monitoring.

Good luck to you. If you find something that works, let us know. We learn from each other.

I have the double whammy, legally blind from macular and dementia from a mini stoke and diabetes.

My mother has been through all of the above. She is in late stages now of Alzheimer Dementia, along with Parkinson's. She also has a history of previous strokes, quadruple bi pass, has smoked since she was 12 years old, and forced to stop smoking the day she had a heart attack and quadruple bi pass at age 70. Her present diagnosis and treatment began 6-8 years ago. Besides mental,physical, medications, psychiatrist, psychologist, home health care, assisted care living , nursing homes, etc., the only treatment that physically and mentally has helped my mother is 'E.C.T" therapy. The head of a medical center that specializes in mental, chemical, hormonal disorders, explained to my father and I that this was her "last resort" for future treatment plans, due to all other "medicine cocktails" was negatively affecting her other health issues. We, along with my mother, agreed to have the doctor schedule the "ElectroConvulsiveTherapy" treatments which began a week later. Mom was starting with two treatments per week for 3 weeks. Then went to once per week for 4-6 weeks, then went to once a month( maintenence treatment to keep her "brain wave connectors" "aligned and together", is how I explain it. We have never ever heard of this type of therapy, but what a positively wonderful affect these treatments have had with my mother. We, along with mom, call that doctor an "angel". All other previous medical specialists have said to us, " no other medicine cocktails" are able to help my mother improve at all, so we should be "realistic for the next stage". Thank goodness we never gave up. So, I suggest anyone looking for any other care options, please look into 'E.C.T" therapy, a " no chemical pill" therapy treatment that has helped my mother immensely.

Interesting that ECT is helpful for you mom's dementia related behavioural problems Confused. People generally react with horror at the mention of shock treatments but I have read that newer techniques have improved outcomes and lessened side effects. And I suppose loss of short term memory isn't really an issue when you already have dementia.

Initially when my mother was in a horrible manic, schizophrenic , hallucination, multiple personality, chemical reaction from drug cocktails, we obviously did NOT say "shock" treatments. I, along with my father and our medical team, explained to her that these weekly or monthly treatments are to help keep her calm, help her sleep, help her eat and drink. After the first and second treatments, she herself told us she could feel "a positive difference", and also slept better and longer, instead of "sundowning" or being awake for days on end due to negative effects of the previous "chemical cocktail pills" other doctors were "trying". Sleep deprivation , hallucinating, anger, not eating, not drinking, etc., were happening less and less after each "calming and relaxing" treatment she was given. Doctors were very happy with how quickly we all could see and hear, that our mother was finally returning to her caring loving socializing ways. Before judging or forming a negative opinion about this type of therapy,please "google" or "WebMd" --- E.C.T" mental health therapy programs. We are very lucky that these doctors were willing to provide this type of therapy information for our family, which absolutely made a huge positive difference in regards to my mothers serious health condition. To this medical team and specialized program, we are very thankful that my beautiful mother is still healthy,happy, and continues to live at her own home with my father, as well as myself, due to I am 10 minutes from my parents home.

Thanks for the testimonial, confused24. Nursing home used to be pretty uniformly dreary and people who remember those days have an unreasonable fear of nursing homes. Similarly, "shock treatment" doesn't ring happy bells from the past -- the only cases I've heard of were disastrous. So it is good to be brought into the 21st century and at least to keep an open mind. Thank you.