Look-a-Like Dementia in elderly
I thought I'd just share an experience I had with my own mother.
About 5 months or so ago, she started getting more forgetful. It seemed to get a bit worse each month, but hey! She's 84. What can you expect, right??
In AUgust she had a major "event" where she completely lost track of time, where she was, and why she was there. It continued to get worse. I was seriously concerned she had developed a fast paced dementia of some sort. We had tests, MRI, you name it. The family doctor just sloughed it off as old age (I won't even go there. . .)
I finally was able to get her to a geriatric specialist, who gave her a full work-up and psychological testing. He also checked out her medications (which were 5 of) After that, he took a look at her bloodwork results.
SO guess what? He says there's nothing wrong with her mind and she's boring, she's that healthy.
Whaaaaaat?? Ya. . . it turns out ELDERLY PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT THYROID LEVELS than the rest of us. She was being highly over medicated with thyroid meds.
This is a very little known fact that most doctors do NOT know. Had we not insisted on investigating this thoroughly, my mom would have just gone mental on this drug. As it stands, the Specialist says she'll be back to normal after a few months.
This was Really Scary. Please pass this info on to friends/family. The excellent and very experienced Pharmacist did not catch this either.
Lesson for me: never leave a stone unturned.
Note: If your elderly loved one is on thyroid meds. check this paper out for "normal" elderly levels of TSH.(which are substantially higher than younger people) It's not hard to cross check their blood work
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17911171