Other caregivers, likewise, may suggest creative strategies to help cope. Kales, M.D., a geriatric psychiatrist at the University of Michigan, recommends the proactive DICE approach (describe, investigate, create, evaluate) before trying medication. Health professionals who are experienced in dementia care can suggest physical changes - removing the coat tree or other offending object, covering mirrors, improving lighting or using mouth-moistening solutions - that could ease symptoms. Many caregivers nonetheless are ashamed of the reactions in their loved ones.ĭon't be: Changes in the brain are creating this distorted reality. Understand that these experiences are a part of LBD - and they happen in most dementias. SEE ALSO: Capgras Syndrome: Are You a Pretender or the 'Real Mary'? "Happy" or benign hallucinations and delusions do not need medical treatment but rather the caregiver's understanding and acceptance that this is a symptom of the illness. In dementia, symptoms always change, so what a person experiences this month may not be happening the next month, though such distressing symptoms seem to last an eternity for the caregiver. On a good day, thinking is clear, and these illusions, hallucinations and delusions may not occur on a bad day, they may be intense.Īs LBD progresses, these types of symptoms may first intensify, then later burn out. In other dementias, delusions are more common than hallucinations, which occur well into the disease cycle, if at all, and are less often visual.įluctuating good days and bad days are another hallmark of LBD. Visual hallucinations are one of the hallmark symptoms in Lewy body dementia (LBD) and often occur early in the illness. Another common delusion is blaming someone for stealing a misplaced item. Capgras syndrome, in which the person with dementia thinks someone close to him or her is an imposter, is one such type of delusion. No object is present during hallucinations, but people's brains tell them they are seeing children in the living room, hearing voices or feeling that there are strings in their mouths, to name a few common experiences.ĭelusions, meanwhile, are fixed false beliefs or ideas that cannot be reasoned with. They might see a person in the corner instead of a coat tree, for example. With illusions, an object is physically there, but dementia patients view it as something else. Such internal "miswiring" can manifest in different ways. Their brains often distort their senses to make them think they are seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling or experiencing something that isn't really there. SEE ALSO: Alzheimer's: Not Just a Disease for Older Adults The mind often plays tricks on people with dementia as brain cells degenerate.
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