Mother has been given Remoran in nursing home and now she can't even hold a conversation when she was very sharp previously. What can I do?

Please speak to a personal injury law firm about this. They often specialize in nursing home abuse and neglect. This is nursing home abuse and neglect. Speak to who was her primary care physician before she went into the nursing home/rehab. If you have your mother's legal authority and permission to make decisions for her, or even if it's only for medical business to be discussed with you, the nursing home was obligated to discuss putting her on this new drug before giving it to her. Remeron is very often used in nursing home settings under the guise of being used to make the patient's appetite come back. That is total bull. I never knew a single person ever put on that and it helped their appetite. Not one and I knew many having been in senior care for so many years. They use it in nursing homes because it makes patients easier to take care of. It doesn't just cause a bit of drowsiness. The people I knew on it were practically catatonic. Please talk to a personal injury law firm about what the nursing home did to your mom.

If there is a reaction to be had to ANY medication on the market today, my soon-to-be 94 y/o mother WILL have it, and the worst case OF it, known to man. I could write a book about what we've been through trying to get my mother help with her various issues, everything from the flu to vertigo and neuropathy, and her having violent reactions to EVERYTHING. There is very very little she CAN take to help her feel better, so it's the worst Catch-22 EVER!!!

It's not ridiculous to think that your mother is also having a reaction to this med she's taking, but without POA, you are powerless to order her to be taken off of it. Call her doctor/NP and express your concerns! Advocate for your mom and request that she be taken off of this drug to see if there is a general improvement with her cognition levels.

"The facility" hasn't 'caused' this situation with your mother; the doctor has to prescribe a medication before the nurse at the SNF can dole it out. So you don't have an issue with the SNF but with the DOCTOR. Once the doctor discontinues the script, the SNF will stop giving it to her. SHE, however, can refuse the medication herself. Is she able to do that, do you know? She can definitely say NO and that's the end of it; nobody can force her to take anything. If the facility is denying they're administering any medications to your mom, well, that's a horse of another color. Again, the doc or the NP is the one to talk to first and foremost, with a follow up call to the DON *Director of Nursing* at the SNF you're mom is currently at.

I hope you can get all of this sorted out; I know how tough it can be. Sending you a hug and a prayer for a good resolution.

Follow-up:

first let me say I am AMAZED at this forum! I see some really wonderful sharing of information, and I was nearly in tears seeing these replies so quickly! Obviously many of you have been through similar, and i am getting goose bumps right now even typing this because that is such a beautiful to know how much people can care and share, these times have seemed so bleak with people not helping each othjer out in the world, and it is incredibly calibrating for me to see the goodness in all of your hearts right now. i can't even begin to express my thanks! <3

So i finally spoke with her Social Worker, she got me approved to be a contact because she was actually lucid today. The POA thing might come shortly, but for now at least i am glad that i am verified as a proper contact to advocate for her!

The story seems to have been passed through so many people with so many different perspectives, that every single detail shared in this thread was in fact exactly what was going on. The practitioner only had a couple days noted on Remoral, and originally said therefore it couldn't be that. When I told her the only reason I knew about it was from a few days prior, she seemed a bit angry, and wanted to get to the bottom of who may have done that, but then she ENTIRELY agreed that this was in fact the day she also noticed a decline, and that she previously wasn't aware of that, which was making the topic bascialy be ignored. She agreed to stop remoral, and focus more on bedside observation to address appetite. my mom has been cloudy, but has said every day that they keep taking her tray away because she was eating too slow, on her charts, it just said that she keeps refusing meals. If my mom is telling me she wants to eat, and THEY are telling me she is incoherent and refuses them ... then it is obvious that she does in fact WANT to eat ... so the NP agreed that it would be of no consequence to stop Remoral. A side note is that my mother didn't know she was being given that, and when told she was kinda funny in how she grumbled that she was now miffed that she wasted 5 days feeling like **** when it was probably that drug all along. That was a nice moment to hear, because it meant she is actually very aware of the fog she is in.
She was treated for a UTI a few weeks ago, but the NP said she thinks it might still be there considering how my Mom presents currently. So they are checking her blood and urine as we speak.
Since she originally came in for a fall, it is possible she might have some bleeding or trauma still, and an MRI at the ER would be an option too. This came up only because she FINALLY understood that indeed my mother's reaction to the drug was certainly at the very least adding some fogginess.
I guess my Mom didn't take the pill last night, and today is the fist day since they gave it that she actually sounded like she's coming back to the awake world. She even joked about being a Zombie coming back to life. Which made me cry very happily.

All in all, Remoran seems like it *CAN* be useful in many cases ... but it certainly can cause some very basic adverse effects in some folks if attention to details are missed.

She was seemingly just about to leave a week ago, and even the NP agreed that it was strange timing. So let's hope a large part of the recent decline was temporary and only due to that! <3

These last few days have been Hell, and mostly due to fractured communication between departments and due to just the mechanical nature of modern healthcare. I'm glad to finally get some traction with multiple people seeing the same details moving forward.

This has been the root of most of what you all shared here, and it is incredibly appreciated that such a community and focused forum exists, I can't even express my gratitude in words. I hope you all have your own situations stable, and i hope to continue helping others as you have helped me here.

God Bless! <3

Cristo, so glad you are going to follow up on all this. Too often an elder newly admitted anywhere is accepted at the level the staff first sees them; then there is deterioration and the staff says "Well, see, they have dementia, and OF COURSE it is worse with the change of scene".
I am so glad you followed up to say "THIS IS NOT MY MOM. I fear the fall resulted in internal bleed in brain or something; this just isn't her. Now medications are complicating it further."
I am so relieved that the social worker got you already communications privileges so you can act for your Mom.
Welcome. I hope you will keep updating us. So concerned for you and for her. Old nurse here, so I saw things like this happen.

My mom was on mirtazapine as a sleep aid and I do remember that it really knocked her out for the first few weeks she was on it but that effect gradually diminished as her body became accustomed. On the whole I was very pleased with this medication, your mom may need more time, she may need the dosage/timing adjusted or it may not be the right choice for her.

(Ah, I see that I posted on the old thread you have referenced)

I’m sorry for what your mom is going through.

Try elevating your level of contact.
Don’t keep talking to the same level of contact if you are not getting a helpful response/explanation.

Ask that she be checked for a UTI.

Has her weight increased? Is she eating better?

NOTE: If you found your closed post, you might copy and paste the link to your new message, then others can easily find it to get the background information you wanted to include.
I did a search for Christo and also looked on your profile and didn’t see where you were following any other posts. Did you change your forum name?

Barb popped in before I could answer.

Yes, Remeron is used to boost appetite, and as the case of ANY drug, your mom could be having a serious reaction to it. I was given ONE dose of Paxil, many years ago and I began hallucinating---12 hrs passed and I came 'down' from the serious reaction, but wow, it scared me!

Mom does NOT need Remeron (or perhaps ANY tricyclic AD) right now.

Don't rely on aunt and uncle--YOU make the phone call and get the answers. The longer mom is on this, IF this is what's making her deteriorate, it will not change until she is if off of it.

Oh, oh. You have no POA. Apparently her MD chose to speak with you anyway. Did he also speak with the Facility doctor where Mom is. It is crucial he tell them that the woman they are looking at now, treating, is NOT the woman who existed before her fall. There was a head injury. What scans were done? There could be pressure on her brain of some sort from a bleed.
What is important here is that SOMEONE get through to the facility ordering doctor that this is not the woman who entered the facility and who existed independently before her head hit the curb. This is a major change for her. They may not know that. There may have been head injuries? Did your Mom have any workup after her fall or any scans. Withdrawing the drug is fine, but it may not be the final answer here, and there needs to be an investigation into what happened.
It is not a good thing that you don't have the DPOA, and apparently no one does? Who is the facility in contact with?
If you are next of kin and are soon in the area then the important thing now, if your Mother is mentally incapacitated is to get yourself some rights to act for her and take care of things. Contact their social worker at once. Often they can make a phone call to a Judge and get temporary guardianship assigned so that your Mom can have representation. If they cannot you need to see an attorney to get temporary guardianship. You can move this to permanent if needed. It will be easier with a social worker's help.
If at all possible you need now to take family leave and be there if you are able. That is to say that if there is anyone who can act for her now, that needs to be done. Do you even know if scans were done after her fall. Because it sounds like something happened then. I sure agree with withdrawing the drug to see if that helps. I will be surprised if it alone is the answer, but not terribly surprised, and it is a good first step.

Remeron is a tricyclic antidepressant. It is in no way like a benzodiazapan.

It is sometimes used as an appetite stimulant and also as a sleeping aid. It sounds as though your mother is having an adverse reaction to it.

What are the qualifications of the folks doing the prescribing? I would have a consult with a geriatric psychiatrist arranged.

She may need a different class of med altogether, or the dosage and/or timing may need adjustment.