Posted by 49er on December 24, 2009, at 8:29:05
In reply to SSRIs in Elderly, posted by donnam125 on December 17, 2009, at 13:50:09
Donna,
My heart breaks when I hear of stories like this. I won't even start because I don't want to disrupt the spirit of the holidays.
Am I reading this right, she is on Zoloft now?
You might want to consider a very slow taper. Normally, I suggest 10% of current dose every 3 to 6 weeks.
But in this case, I might start with 2.5%.
Unfortunately, due to insomnia, I am trouble explaining how to do this. Therefore, you might want to go to http://www.paxilprogress.org where there are very helpful folks. Even though the site says paxil, it is for everyone who wants help tapering off of psych meds.
By going very slowly, you would give your mom time to adjust to the lowering of the dose.
By the way, if she was doing fine, I would say not to bother. But it sounds like you have nothing to lose by lowering the dose since the meds seem to be making the situation worse.
For what sounds like symptoms of Alzheimer's, I would look at phosphatidylserine. I have tried it as the result of having cognitive issues as the result of psych meds and found it helpful. It is used for people with your mom's condition.
Unfortunately, for reasons that would make this post too long, I couldn't stay on it long term. But interestingly, as long as I took it early enough in the day, it helped with sleep.
Have you had her vitamin D level tested? She might need more than 1000IU.
You and your sister sound like wonderful daughters.
Good luck.
49er
poster:49er
thread:929718
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091217/msgs/930678.html