old age, depression and recently started hallucinating about once a week. Is this dementia?
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at
12:00 am
Rukhsana S asked:
My mother hada fall 3 months ago and has no memory of it. She has all past and recent memories. Good with recent incidents and names. Has severe spinal stenosis and was prescribed Vicodin and steroid shots. Since then started hallucinating. Initially it was thought Vicodin was the cause and was totally stopped. Had a steroid shot last week and again this week she is hallucinating. Has major depression. Could this be dementia?
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My mother hada fall 3 months ago and has no memory of it. She has all past and recent memories. Good with recent incidents and names. Has severe spinal stenosis and was prescribed Vicodin and steroid shots. Since then started hallucinating. Initially it was thought Vicodin was the cause and was totally stopped. Had a steroid shot last week and again this week she is hallucinating. Has major depression. Could this be dementia?
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Tagged with: Major Depression • Memory • Recent Memories
Filed under: Other - Diseases
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This doesn’t sound like dementia at all. Dementia comes on gradually, first forgetting small things like where their car keys are, and progresses to not knowing who your children are. And it usually doesn’t include hallucinations. With your mother falling and all of these problems beginning after the fall and after medications were started, I would say something related to this is the culprit. Did your mother hit her head when she fell, did she have any loss of conscious? She definitely needs further work up from her physician. This doesn’t sound normal and she needs to be looked at closer. If her physician won’t run further tests, find another.
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no but it could be the steroids. i have heard of some reactions like this.
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NO.
there is something more wrong .
Or at least it needs to be excluded. If this was dementia, ok…but I think there’s more to it than that.
To explain , when the elderly get ill….sometimes they show it in the form of acute confusional state…or in strange bizarre behaviour.
Take no chances. She is the only mother you will ever have….get her the best doctor you can. You wont ever regret it.
get a loan….there are things more important than money. This is one of them.
YOU WONT EVER REGRET IT.
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Maybe start with a full lab workup, electrolytes, etc. If anything is off in that dept. it can cause the problems you describe. You might also want to see if there is a gerontologist (doctor who specializes in treating the elderly) in your area. Older folks respond differently to medications than you or I would. I’m not going to say the steroid shot definitely would do it, because I’m not a doctor, but steroids have been known to cause some bizarre side effects in certain “special populations,” so it might not be unheard of. My father has moderate Alzheimers, and he does tend to hallucinate when he’s off his medication, but that’s MODERATE Alzheimer’s, and that does NOT sound like what your mother has. As a final recourse, you could consider taking her to a neurologist for a full workup, but that would be a pretty extreme measure. Trust your instincts and if you can find a doctor that you trust to direct her care, follow his/her recommendations. I’ve learned with my Dad’s situation that patient and family confidence is probably the best thing to look for in a doctor. Good luck and God Bless. Hopefully this will turn out to be a short term problem for you and your mother.