Hello-I tried to post earlier but it seemed to fail.
Mom in a NH with dementia has been depressed, withdrawn, weak, not eating right, and loosing cognitive abilities right around the time her antidepressant Lexipro has been reduced. The nurse practitioner said the doctor does not like the long term (several months) side effects.
Should I insist they keep her on it, or recommend an alternative with less side effects? There must be some medication that can help. She was hugely better a month ago.
Very frustrated, thank you for listining.
Make your wishes known and best of luck.
She's depressed, withdrawn, weak, not eating, and losing more of her mental abilities. Exactly the kind of resident a memory care wants. The kind they don't have to watch or really do anything for other than put them in a wheelchair (or leave them in bed), spoon-feed them three times a day, then toilet or change a diaper (hopefully more than once per shift) and they're good. They don't want residents in memory care who are mobile, argumentative/combative, stubborn, or even just lively. These kinds of residents require 24 hour supervision and care facilities won't employ and pay for the amount of staff required for these kinds of memory care residents. They want vegetables. So they do the next best thing. They take someone off medications that working for them or they put them on ones and they know what the effects will likely be.
Demand that your mother be put back on her medication. Then demand to see a weekly report of every medication that is given to her in the facility. You can research every drug they give her yourself to find out what their uses are. If the memory care refuses to do this, call the Ombudsman's Office and look into putting your mother in a different memory care facility. You don't have to let them get away with this. Good luck.
Your Mom may have a different issue going on, like a UTI or dehydration or some other new health problem. Talk to the nurse to see if they can make sure she's drinking enough and if she can be tested for a UTI, which is a huge culprit when sudden changes happen. It may have nothing to do with the decrease in the Lexapro but there's only one way to find out and it's through testing to eliminate all other possibilities.