What Do Hallucinations Indicate While On Cyclobenzaprine?

Posted on Thu, 26 Oct 2017

Question: My 87 year old mother is active, still drives locally, and still lives in an apartment on her own. She has always been the sensible one in the family. She takes a fib related medication and cyclobenzaprine for mood. Recently, she has begun seeing various scary figures in her room at night, but she seemed to deal with it. We are actually disturbed by the fact that she now swears that men are outside her windows at night, shining flashlights up on the windows (second level apartment), playing radios, loitering most of the night. I live 3 + hours away. Her neighbors and my brother, who stayed with her one night, see nothing. Of course, she insists they knew my brother was there, her neighbors cannot hear, and this is real. During the daytime, she is fine as ever. What do we need to do next? Thank you, XXXXXXX XXXXXXX

Answered by Dr. Michelle Gibson James (33 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
needs assessment

Detailed Answer:
HI, thanks for using healthcare magic

It would be best for her to be seen by her doctor for assessment. Organic or correctable causes need to be ruled out.
This means that physical examination and blood tests may be needed (complete blood count, ESR- checks for inflammation, electrolyte levels including calcium)

Abnormal electrolytes, infection etc can cause a change in mental status though this would commonly be both day and night.

In addition to blood tests, her doctor may suggest a CT scan brain, this is not always done but can sometimes be done with altered behavior to rule out an underlying cause.

If no physical cause is found then a psychological assessment may be needed.

I hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar