Overuse Of Antipsychotics Among Nursing Home Residents With Dementia

The Alzheimer's Reading Room

This excellent article really got my blood flowing. It reminded me about a similar situation that occurred with my mother's personal physician. The doctor wanted to put my mother on an anti-depression drug. I was far enough in and had read enough information about dementia and Alzheimer's to understand this was a bad idea. At that point we did change physicians (three times in fact).

It turned out that my mother was likely suffering from Alzheimer's and she needed Aricept. It also turned out she was suffering from unrecognized hypothyroidism, although this diagnosis came later.

I learned two very important lessons. First, once dementia is diagnosed you need to find a personal physician that understands the disease and is well educated about the appropriate actions that need to be taken. Second, I learned that every person suffering from dementia should have their thyroid checked. After almost two years of never smiling and laughing, my mother began to smile and laugh after she received the proper medication for her thyroid.

My mother actually sang the other day for the first time in several years. I believe the introduction of the thyroid medication is partly responsible for this very positive change.

The clip below is a snippet of the article that appeared in the New York Times. Click the link in the clip to read the entire article. It is important. Please share this information with others.