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Suggest Treatment For Hallucinations In An Elderly Person
Question: An elderly lady (83 years old and may weigh 110 pounds or less) sees people, ants, or animals in her home. She had had these hallucinations before when she had UTI. The medication (antibiotic) she was given at that time (October 2016) seemed to help the visions to disappear. The last episode was October 2016. The hallucinating began again this week. Her urine test this Thursday (January 26th) was negative. Her daughter is beside herself not finding any lasting solutions.
Brief Answer:
it's probably worsening of dementia or true psychosis
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
this kind of disorder is called psychosis and may occur either primarily (without any cause that is) or secondary to many kinds of disorders in a patient with pre-existing dementia. In old people mild dementia may only become apparent as forgetfullness but when these people are under stress (like a urinary tract infection or any infection...) they may experience worsening with loss of orientation, confusion, hallucinations, etc.
If she was perfectly fine and suddenly she started 'seeing' things then an underlying cause has to be investigated. It could be an infection (check her temperature) or other events including (but not limited to) electrolyte disorders, cerebrovascular disorders (stroke) and other major (or even minor) disorders.
The antibiotic helped the other time because the underlying cause was a UTI. Another cause has to be found this time... If you don't have any idea or can't see anything abnormal (besides the hallucinations that is) then you should let your doctor examine her and perhaps order some tests.
A detailed medical history and clinical examination may sometimes reveal the cause. Anything can be important like a drug she started recently (or stopped recently), an injury, progressive tiredness over a few days, etc
I hope you find my comments helpful!
Kind Regards!
it's probably worsening of dementia or true psychosis
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
this kind of disorder is called psychosis and may occur either primarily (without any cause that is) or secondary to many kinds of disorders in a patient with pre-existing dementia. In old people mild dementia may only become apparent as forgetfullness but when these people are under stress (like a urinary tract infection or any infection...) they may experience worsening with loss of orientation, confusion, hallucinations, etc.
If she was perfectly fine and suddenly she started 'seeing' things then an underlying cause has to be investigated. It could be an infection (check her temperature) or other events including (but not limited to) electrolyte disorders, cerebrovascular disorders (stroke) and other major (or even minor) disorders.
The antibiotic helped the other time because the underlying cause was a UTI. Another cause has to be found this time... If you don't have any idea or can't see anything abnormal (besides the hallucinations that is) then you should let your doctor examine her and perhaps order some tests.
A detailed medical history and clinical examination may sometimes reveal the cause. Anything can be important like a drug she started recently (or stopped recently), an injury, progressive tiredness over a few days, etc
I hope you find my comments helpful!
Kind Regards!
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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