About Calming Medication for Alzheimer's Patients

Alzheimer's disease is an extremely frustrating brain disorder. As the disease progresses, it kills off brain cells and interferes with communications between different parts of the brain and between the brain and other parts of the body. Alzheimer's patients may forget who they are, how to do simple tasks and even why they entered a room seconds before. These symptoms are extremely frightening and frustrating, and cause many Alzheimer's patients to become aggressive and angry. There are many methods of helping Alzheimer's patients calm down using a variety of treatments and medications.

History

• Alzheimer's disease was officially diagnosed by Alois Alzheimer in 1906. However, the only treatment at the time was to allow the disease to take its course. Many patients ended up in institutions or asylums as their conditions deteriorated because people simply did not know how to handle the aggressive nature of the disease.

Function

• Calming medicines for Alzheimer's patients serve one ultimate function: to calm the patient and prevent them from injuring themselves or others. However, these medicines can help people with mild Alzheimer's continue to focus and function on their daily routines, and enable those with moderate Alzheimer's to continue to live with their loved ones rather than in full-care facilities. For people with advanced, severe Alzheimer's these medications prevent them from harming themselves and those around them.

Misconceptions

• Many people think that calming Alzheimer's medicines are just heavy duty tranquilizers. They fear that giving their loved ones these medicines will turn them into "zombies" who cannot think, feel or communicate. However, many calming medications actually give Alzheimer's patients a new lease on their lives by enabling them to approach problems and memory-related frustrations with a little more equilibrium.

Types

• There are several different types of medications that are used to calm Alzheimer's patients. Drugs used to treat schizophrenia can also help limit patients' aggression and the idea that people are out to get them. Other drugs can be used in conjunction with meditation and memory treatments to help the patient learn new ways to exist in the world with their handicapped memory. Another treatment that is not a drug at all is the "calming room," an area where a patient can retreat to reorient themselves before addressing a problem. This last treatment is highly successful with patients with mild Alzheimer's, but becomes less effective as the problem worsens since the patient may not be able to remember why they are in the room in the first place.

Considerations

• While many doctors, nurses and families report great benefits from calming medications, others believe that they actually make patients worse. Some types of medication can help one person immensely while accelerating another patient's decline into total dementia. You need to work closely with a team of neurologists and behavioral therapists to determine what type of medications are right for your specific Alzheimer's case.

Warning

• Because Alzheimer's is so little understood and appears to affect each patient slightly differently, you should never use general research, hearsay results or another person's medications to implement your own treatment regimen. If you do so, you endanger not only the patient's life, but the lives of those who live with that person. Never alter Alzheimer's drugs and drug regimens without help from a doctor and careful supervision.