Hi, I am caregiver to my Mom who is in a local nursing home, pretty much bedridden at 83 with PD for about 6 years that we've KNOWN about. I have avidly read all communications and sympathized deeply with all problems. Now, I am beginning to have a new one.
So far, Mom has been very lucid. But lately, she is having episodes of paranoia. I would liken them to the visual hallucinations or "sinamet people" that I have read about here, but her's are mostly auditory. She swears, even when I am in the room with her, that she can hear the nurses and other residents talking about her in the hall and saying negative things, wanting to put her on "new" medicines, wanting to move her out of her room, etc. I know this is not so, since I am there for 2-3 hours almost every night, to feed her dinner, get her ready for bed etc. and am in constant contact with the staff. There is some basis in the fact that Mom doesn't get along with some of her morning aides and there has been some friction there. But I KNOW when she calls me at 9:15 at night and says they are whispering about her in the halls that this is not so.
Has anyone dealt with auditory "sinamet people"? Do meds work for them as well? I can't remember what is used to combat these people but seem to remember anti anxiety meds help.
Any advice is always appreciated...
So if the first anti-psychotic doesn't work, try a different one. I hope this helps.
Sorry to be so down, but as we all know this is a bitch of a disease to deal with in all it many forms.
By the way, we have tried all of the anti-psycotic drugs available to us and none seem to work. She has also had her sinemet reduced to two yellow tabs (sorry, can't remember the strength) per day, one in the morning and one at night and only by doing this can we reduce the hallucinations to a bearable level.
I know the advice isn't much, but I hope you can get some comfort from the fact you are not alone, and we caregivers are all dealing with similar problems.
Auditory: Not all hallucinations are visual; auditory hallucinations are often reported, but seldom by patients who don't also have visual hallucinations. At one time during the course of my own loss of smell sensitivity, I had olfactory hallucinations - unfamiliar odors that I could not identify and no one else could detect.
When he was having a paranoid episode in hospital, my husband was sure the nurses were talking about him, listening through the vent on ceiling, etc--but he didn't say that he "heard " them. Most of his hallucinations are visual, I would say, but auditory ones are not so rare. You might ask re: effect of meds on these web sites where neuros answer questions:
Click on the Ask an Expert section, then click on Parkinsons in the list of diseases. You'll get a brief answer in a couple of days.
It is simple to "join", and you can also read messages without joining. When you search for a word, you will get a list of mssages, and if you highlight one and click on "view message" it will appear.