Dementia

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Ill put the question up front as the history is quite lengthy. Thank you for any help that you can provide.

My mother seemed to do well on Haldo but was switched to risperadal. This switch caused a drastic loss in functionality. Her current psychiatrist is trying to switch her to ,I believe Seroquil, and this has made her worse.

Please take a moment to read thru the below history for a time line of events.
I'd like to know if there is any hope that a proper adjustment of her medication may bring about a better existance for my mother.

Again Thanks.

My mother (currently 58yrs old) had a long history of depression and un diagnosed schizophrenia. Began showing signs of dementia. Confusion, paranoia, stopped bathing, etc...

Addmitted for Psychiactric evaluation where they discovered emergency heart problem. Underwent triple by pass surgery and had a psychotic episode following surgery. Attending Neuroligist at St Francis, LI, NY diagnosed multi infarc dimentia. Attending Psychiatrist put her on Risperdal and she was released to hillside (affiliated psyh hospital). She had a very bad result from the risperdal and the Psych at Hillside prescribed Haldol 4mg eventually reduced to 2mg.

At that time I was able to bring her home and start the process of getting her into assisted living. Her psychosis was helped and we also saw many of her schizophrenic symptoms clear up. Stopped biting her nails, talking to her self. Her Dementia stayed about the same as when we'd addmitted her to the psych hospital.

She continued to see an out patient psyh who also put her on 100mg Zoloft along with the Haldol 2mg.

She was fianlly admitted to Assisted living and did well for a few months but began to obssess on her roomate and one day attacked her. During this time her attending Psych was decreasing her Zoloft but she was still on Haldol.

The assisted living facility psyched her out to South Oaks (psych facility).
At south oaks she was taken off haldo and put on risperadal.

At this time she lost all funtionality. She no longer recognized us, could barely speak, became completely incontinent, and began to pace i.e. she can not sit in one place and will constantly pace or walk to the point of exhaustion, could not take verbal direction, could not feed herself.

When she was admitted to South Oaks I was told that they would keep her for a number of weeks until her meds were adjusted and she was able to go back to assisted living. Becasue she was not covered by medicaid at the time there was a problem with her insurance and the hospital moved very quickly to have her discharged. With in a week of her frightening decline She was discharged to a nursing home in far rockaway still in her degenrated state.

After two weeks she was admitted to St Johns psych hospital in Far Rockaway where they kept her for a month and upped her risperdal to 6mg. This brought her more under control, she was able to recognize us and could form some sort of conversation but her ephasia had become quite bad and was barely able to put two words together.
She was no where near her original
functionality at the assited living facility where she had an active social life, and even a boyreiend. Also she could not lift her head. She was more or less bent over.

She was discharged to another nursing home in brooklyn and I was able to finally bring her back out to long island.

She has remained in basically the same state, although she can lift her head
now. Over the past year and half she has lost her ability to speak, dosent recognize or respond to us, and has recently been confined to a chair as she has become unstable when pacing.
She is extremely aggitated when placed in the chair and is on a sedative as needed. unitl a month ago she appead to be becoming catotonic.

Currently her attending psych at the nursing home is trying to change her psych meds to very ill effect. She has become extremly aggitated although she has been speaking more. Crying out, unable to rest or stay still.

I'm thinking of trying to have her hospitalized again to try and straighten out her meds.