Hi all,
My dad has had Parkinsins since 2013 and coped well with it until he suffered a brain abscess in 2018. As a result of the abscess he lost mobility in his legs which has deteriorated now meaning he needs to be transferred from chair to bed by a hoist.
He could cope with the mobility issues as his brain recovered and conversation, recollection, concentration all returned.
However at the beginning of the first lockdown in March he started having absent seizures, he’d had 2 during 10months in hospital then the first was 8months after getting home. They became frequent and we tried to avoid putting the news on or talking about covid (virtually impossible last year). His Parkinsons nurse agreed they were probably triggered by anxiety around the covid situation.
He was prescribed seizure tablets and his behavior became iratic, similar to that of delirium or dementia.
A CT scan showed no changes since his discharge scan in 2019.
I pushed for a meeting and his parkinsons consultant came out to the house. She immediately said the epilepsy medication was wrong with the parkinsons medication he was on and she’d not been consulted on it being added.
Over the past 4 months he’s been weened off the epilepsy tablet and a new combo of pills introduced. He’s only had one very short seizure and is sleeping better however the dementia like behaviour remains.
A psychiatrist is visiting in a few weeks, my question is could the fast demise be medication rather than dementia?
We are not naive to the link between Parkinsons and dementia however the changes in his behaviour have been rapid and in line with changes to meds so I want to gather all the information I can as it would be too easy for them just to diagnose dementia.
Thanks in advance
Gillian