Pam said it well. The main thing is that every person is different. Work closely with the doctor and, yes, the pharmacist as well. Pharmacists are generally well versed in side effects and can offer valuable information.
A combination of medications and focused attention to the cause of the person's anxiety can be effective. Put yourself in the place of the affected person: not understanding what is going on around us would make us anxious. So, all of these approaches are good.
In the early stages of dementia, anxiety meds are helpful. Later the individual symptoms are addressed depression? obsession? anger? There is no single fix-all medication. Ramping up can actually have the opposite effect, especially if there are Lewy Bodies in the brain . Talk to the pharmacist and MD.
My experience, limited to my mom, is that you need a talented geriatric psychiatrist who can try different medications and guage the effect. Each body is different, what works for one person may not work for another.
We do have a neuro psych that we work with as well as his general care physician. Both are good at helping figure out. We really don't use any meds with my father, but just learned that this is probably related to anxiety. We try to limit any meds he takes. Fortunately we also have a doctor in the family that helps us think about a direction to take and which doctors to see. Thank you for your responses.
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A combination of medications and focused attention to the cause of the person's anxiety can be effective. Put yourself in the place of the affected person: not understanding what is going on around us would make us anxious. So, all of these approaches are good.
Please keep us posted on how you are doing,
Carol
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