<p>We experienced the situation where a family member (mother) was misdiagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and as it turned out, she really is suffering from depression and anxiety. She was, unfortunately placed on a mind-altering drug which mimicked the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, thus contributing to the misdiagnosis. When H and I finally figured out this out, we immediately saw to it that she was taken off the drug, and since then, those symptoms disappeared. As it turned out, there was an article in the NY Times describing the very same drug and it’s effect on the elderly, and how it should be used with extreme caution in that population.</p>
<p>And what was the drug? Glad symptoms turned out to not be Alzheimers-what a relief!</p>
<p>Thanks. It was a relief, but the misdiagnosis went on for about a year, before we realized that the medication was causing the symptoms. To top it off, the psychiatrists couldn’t even figure it out! The drug - Zyprexa.</p>
<p>The reason why I posted the thread is just to alert other families who might be going through a similar situation, and to be aware that some of these mind-altering drugs are just not appropriate for the elderly. The ivy league psychiatrists even had my mother placed in a special assisted living facility just for Alzheimer’s patients -and that was another mistake! This was a locked in facility, and the placement was completely inappropriate, but we didn’t know any better at the time. I can’t believe how naive we were.</p>
<p>nyumom, thanks for the info. I am sorry you and your loved one went through this, but very glad that it turned out she did not have alzheimer’s.</p>
<p>Nyumom, I also thank you for posting this. We had an opposite sort of situation 25 years ago…my mother was displaying erratic behavior, sullenness and anger. Our family physician suggested she might have a drinking problem and had me mark the bottles at home. I thought at the time it was a bizarre possibility (particularly knowing my mom), but I dutifully marked the liquor bottles and watched and waited (my dad was still alive but hospitalized for his own health issues).</p>
<p>After about two weeks of this, I had enough…there was no drinking on the sly going on. I finally demanded that the doctor give us a referral to someone, anyone, and he suggested a neurologist. After spending 15 minutes with my mom, the neurologist concluded that she had early-onset Alzheimer’s, told me to go the library to do some reading on the disease, and washed his hands of her. I had learned enough from the experience with our family doctor that I wasn’t willing to be quite so compliant, so he referred my mom to Mayo Clinic. There they were able to eliminate any other possibilities, so that the diagnosis was confirmed.</p>
<p>I was only 24 at the time, but I did learn lifelong lessons about the need to be assertive with doctors…when your gut is telling you something is wrong, then chances are something is wrong. My daughter has rheumatoid arthritis, and I would often think of questions after the fact and would make appointments with the doctor just to sit down with my list of questions. Now that my daughter is over 18, she’s learned from my example and is quite comfortable with asserting her need for answers.</p>
<p>I was going to add to the other Alzheimer’s thread, but decided to do this one, just to add to the warning not to trust everything doctors do or say. We just lost my H’s father to (the most recent diagnosis) Lewy Body Disease. I say most recent because I personally am still not certain it wasn’t something else like maybe lymphoma that went into the cerebral spinal fluid, or even lack of oxygen in the brain (different from a lack of oxygen in the blood, but where oxygenated blood is not reaching the brain in enuf volume to do its job). Amazingly (or not) the doctors never tested my FIL for either of the last two possibilities even though he had lymphoma (untreated, another gripe of mine) and stents elsewhere.</p>
<p>Anyway, my FIL spent almost two years deteriorating and getting one diagnosis after another, including a very dangerous surgery (whipple), then finally a diagnosis from his primary neurologist of Parkinson’s. He was put on Sinemet (levidopa), which (duh) greatly worsened his delusions/dementia. When the sinemet wasn’t working, the neurologist doubled the dose and left him on it for 6 weeks until (get this) that neurologist’s partner, an expert in Parkinson’s, could see my FIL. </p>
<p>Well, it only took the second neurologist one look at my FIL and the test results already in the file to say nope, not Parkinson’s, it’s Lewy Body, and sinemet’s the wrong medicine, it will only make things worse not better. The poor man was dead two weeks later.</p>
<p>Run, do not walk, to the bookstore/library and get a copy of “How Doctors Think” by Jerome Groopman, MD and protect yourself from a misdiagnosis. A lot of things are time sensitive and two weeks, much less two years of bad calls can be deadly.</p>
<p>mercymom: Thanks for the warning.</p>
<p>nyumom: Thanks you, too, and I hope things go well from here on in.</p>
<p>I had two false psychiatric diagnoses: one of schizophrenia, one hyprochondriachal depression. The first was a problem with prednisone for asthma, the second complications with medication for thyroid disease. </p>
<p>The leading psychiatrist in NYC told me that since I was the most cheerful person he’d seen for ten years the one who’d diagnosed me with depression was an idiot. It seems that only Dr. Klein knew that hypochondriasis is often a symptom of thyroid disorder. He adjusted my medication and symptom has not recurred for ten years.</p>
<p>About the schizophrenia: I was young and parents had me hospitalized. I kept saying, “If I know I’m hallucinating (no problem for me, it was the sixties) how can I be schizophrenic?” Of course, as an eighteen year old patient, I was utterly ignored. Finally my asthma worsened enough I was put back on prednisone and all symptoms disappeared. They kept me there for a month, anyway, ugh, and told my parents I would never succeed in college because “these patients never do.” They also recommended ECT (electro-shock) which my mother refused (thank goodness.) Turns out I was taken off prednisone too precipitously after my last asthma attack and was lucky I didn’t die from adrenal insufficiency.</p>
<p>That was over 30 years ago. I have had no psychiatric symptoms, have a PhD and have held the same tenured college teaching job for 23 years. The psychiatrist’s recommendation was that I work as a cashier at the local A&P.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the info. and sharing personal experiences, etc. I will definitely take a look at the book “How Doctors Think”. I realize that diagnosing Alzheimer’s, dementia, etc. can be difficult at times, however, sometimes it seems like the psychiatrists are practicing voodoo medicine - the medications can be trial and error, and it’s not definitive as to whether these drugs will work or not, and some of them are so powerful, and unwarranted, especially for the elderly population.</p>