A Startling Cause of Misdiagnosed Dementia

The Kaiser Foundation recently reported that the average senior is taking six prescription drugs daily. Many add one or two new prescriptions to their daily routine each year, and often, the senior and the senior loved one’s family do not fully understand which pill does what, when to take each pill or what side effects to look out for.

Learn more about how this can lead to a misdiagnosis of illness, and even, medication induced Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

 

How Medication Side Effects Can Masquerade as Dementia

Drug interactions and side effects often mimic the symptoms of age-related cognitive disorders. For instance, drugs that affect cognition and mobility, such as anti-anxiety meds, can make dementia symptoms worse — or even create a facade of dementia in people who don’t suffer from the disease, a condition known as pseudodementia.

For instance, many anti-anxiety drugs commonly prescribed to seniors such as Valium and Xanax, have side effects that are indistinguishable from Alzheimer’s or dementia, including:

• Short-term memory loss
• Disinhibition
• Hallucinations

Other medications can also cause pseudodementia, including cholesterol lowering statin drugs like Lipitor, which many seniors take. In fact, any medicine that can cause cognitive impairment could lead to a misdiagnosis of dementia. Classes of drugs including anti-histamines, antibiotics, corticosteroids, anticonvulsants, antiemetics, muscle relaxants and opioid pain killers all carry this risk.

While the right medicine can reverse the course of serious diseases and improve a senior’s quality of life immeasurably, medications also cause problems. We received this comment on our Senior Living Blog, which is worth quoting:

“My mother was fading fast. In the course of two months, she went from needing general assistance to not being able to stand or assist with her own transfers… Over the course of about three weeks, she had deteriorated to the point where she could not take her medications. Without meds, she regained her mind and most of her mobility. It came down to the medications she was on. We began reintroducing them one at a time with minimal doses for the most important issues. If we saw a return of symptoms of dementia, we would reverse course and she would come right back. It has made me wonder how many of our elderly end up in homes, or deteriorate catastrophically because they are on too much medication. ”

Senior Living and Medication Care Plans

For many seniors, a move to an assisted living community can help get this medication chaos under control. Most assisted living communities require that residents have a doctor’s visit before admission. Families and physicians often use this visit as an opportunity to “press the reset button” on prescriptions. A complete reassessment of the senior’s medication regime can take place at this time. Under doctor’s supervision, many seniors are able to go off of medicines that are redundant or have outgrown their usefulness.

Once a senior is admitted to assisted living, a care plan is put in place. Care plans lay out goals and strategies for the resident’s care, and medicines are a big part of the equation. The community, family, senior and medical professionals discuss what medicines will be given to the resident, why, and often set goals for reducing them. In fact, seniors, particularly those with Alzheimer’s and dementia, are often able to reduce their medications after moving to assisted living communities with memory care.

In fact, many seniors who have been prescribed anti-anxiety medications find themselves in an undignified stupor that’s not only painful for loved ones to witness, but also can lead to falls, head injuries and broken bones. Today’s memory care communities attempt to reduce this agitation and anxiety non-chemically, with methods such as:

• Purposefully designing communities to make people with memory loss feel comfortable
• Using therapy which reduces a senior’s blood pressure, improves mood and decreases anxiety
• Encouraging family visits and community involvement

Loren Shook, CEO of Silverado Senior Living, which specializes in memory care, confirms that many residents who move to Silverado communities are able to significantly reduce their medicine intake, and with great benefit.

Medication Management and Healthy Senior Living

While decreasing the amount of prescribed medications is ideal, it’s not always possible. In some cases, seniors require every medicine they’re prescribed. But even in these cases, assisted living plays an important role. Even if medicines can’t be reduced, it’s important that that they be taken correctly. Medication management, which is offered at nearly all assisted living communities, assures that seniors get the right medicine, at the right dose, at the right time. For seniors with multiple medicines, or with memory loss, this benefit alone can be a lifesaver.

If your older loved one is on multiple medicines, or is showing changes that you believe may be related to drug interactions, arrange a doctor’s visit to reevaluate medications. Talk to the doctor about what medicines are essential, and which may be doing more harm than good.

If your older loved one cannot take medication safely, and you can’t be there to help, consider memory care or residential home care. Our Senior Living Advisors can help your family find the most appropriate options for loved one.

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A Startling Cause of Misdiagnosed Dementia