Are you a son or a daughter with the role of caregiver for a parent suffering from Alzheimer’s? Are you struggling with the decision to use antipsychotic drugs to curb the behaviours associated with the disease?
The reality of Alzheimer’s hits home when mom or dad can no longer be cared for and have to be institutionalized. Family caregivers have to deal with feelings of guilt associated with locking their parents away. It’s a difficult decision, one that’s compounded by watching their loved ones drugged into submission.
As Alzheimer’s progresses, patients tend to exhibit more symptoms. Delusions, hallucinations, sleeplessness and paranoia are commonplace. Aggression and violent behaviour becomes more and more frequent.
Facilities designed to care for Alzheimer’s patients will often prescribe antipsychotic drugs to deal with these symptoms. The result of this course of treatment turns mom or dad into mindless zombies and the patients labelled as “problems patients” are drugged into submission.
Witnessing a parent who was vibrant and active suddenly sedate and immobile will upset families.
Is it wrong for institutions to take this course of treatment for the Alzheimer’s patients? Are their alternatives to antipsychotic drugs? Are other things causing the behaviours that could signal something else happening to the patient?
As a first course of treatment, using antipsychotic drugs to treat Alzheimer’s is wrong.
While there may be challenging behaviours being shown by the people affected with this brain disease, there may be some underlying condition causing them to be inconsolable or in a state of persistent distress.
Family caregivers should not accept antipsychotics as a first course of treatment and they should become advocates for their loved ones. There may be another medical condition causing the decline and symptoms may exist to point to other conditions preventing the patient from receiving the care necessary to curb the “undesirable” behaviour.
Before turning to antipsychotics to treat Alzheimer’s or any dementia, it is important to have the patient undergo a full medical evaluation to ensure some other health issue is not causing or at least contributing to the problem.
As a family caregiver, chances are you have legal authority to make medical decisions regarding your parent. Insist on a consultation with a neurologist, geriatric psychiatrist or geriatrician before approving the use of antipsychotic medications on the Alzheimer’s patient.
This is your right!
Institutions given authority to prescribe antipsychotics to Alzheimer’s patients generally do so in high doses. This will turn your loved one into a zombie. This will put your loved one in a state of coma. This will cause a rapid deterioration of your loved ones health.
These drugs may be effective at improving the quality of life of Alzheimer’s patients when prescribed in doses that do not overly sedate. However, it is common practice to use these drugs to improve the quality of life of the workers given the responsibility to care for the patients themselves by drugging the patients into submission.
Using antipsychotic drugs properly with a proper plan of care will improve the quality of life of the Alzheimer’s patient and will also improve the quality of life for the caregiver. It won’t change the fact the person is still suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia but the problem behaviours can be reduced.
Antipsychotic drugs have very dangerous side effects especially at the levels typically used to sedate Alzheimer’s patients into submission. These drugs raise the risk of heart attack and stroke, and have been shown to cause death in older adults, the exact demographic that generally suffers from Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Quite often, antipsychotic drugs have never been officially approved for treatment of dementia or Alzheimer’s based behaviours. The drugs are prescribed through a practice called off-label prescribing.
This is not to say antipsychotics don’t have a place in treating Alzheimer’s patients. They can and have shown to have benefits when used in smaller doses.
As a family caregiver, it is important you weigh the pros and cons of using these drugs. They can provide a balance and restore a quality of life the Alzheimer’s patient has not seen in some time.
However, facing the reality that this is a disease that will progress and will reduce the life of your loved one may have to factor in when making a treatment decision.
There are some difficult decisions you will have to make and do some soul-searching. How long will your parent live with the disease? Are you prepared to have their lives shortened by using antipsychotic drugs? Are you willing to sit and watch your loved one being drugged into submission? How will you cope with the guilt this will cause in yourself?
At the end of the day you are still the caregiver. You have to make the decisions and be the advocate for your parents. Never give blanket approval for using antipsychotics without talking to other healthcare professionals.
Make the best decision for your loved one and for your own peace of mind.
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