Continual diarrhea and late-stage Alzheimer's. Any advice?

I have had good effect using OTC anti diarrhea for my husband. There are also prescription strength. Could this be diet related? Good luck!

My mom had lifetime D problems. Early in my care for her I mentioned it to her doc. He suggested adding a probiotic to her daily vitamin and med regime. Low and behold! I couldn't believe it! Fixing the D problem was not without a new issue. Because she had had these problems as long as I can remember, I don't think she knew to push for a BM. She had always had a faucet that couldn't be turned off.

So, the probiotic solved the D problem we occasionally had to go to the ER to get her flushed out. Maybe I should have done the probiotic on alternate days.

The probiotic we used was Walgreens Super Probiotic.

As Junbug stated below for a patient, it was also Donepezil that did this to my mom. It was doing nothing for her cognition, so her doctor took her off it and within a short period of time, the diarrhea stopped.

Talk to her primary care giver about the diarrhea. You will probably need to send in a stool sample for analysis. Her doctor may refer her to a GI specialist. Common causes of diarrhea are medications (look all her medications up online for side effects), dairy/food intolerances, C. Difficile (usually after a course of antibiotics), or infections/irritations of the GI tract. In the meantime, try giving her a lot of Gatorade, clear liquids, and cutting back on anything that might be "spicy".

Gcg01: Zoloft can cause diarrhea.

For my patient it was Donepezel that caused diaherrha

Gastroenterologist.

Gcg,

I meant to comment on your post when I saw it initially, msging now in case you'll see it.

My Mom, 88, is in a MC unit, has chronic irritable bowel disease and constant loose stools. If you haven't yet found a remedy to help your wife, maybe this will help. Mom is also on Zoloft, 175 mgs daily and has has IBS for decades.

Do your research online to see if Zoloft is the cause; drugs can have rare side effects and her Drs may deny any issue. It's down to you to investigate.

As a retired RN, I initiated for Mom what we did for patients with loose stools: giving a bulking agent like psyllium husk or even Metamucil. Must be taken with lots of fluids to prevent constipation.

And (not part of medical care) start her on high grade probiotics to restore and rebalance her gut flora. Use any brand for now and order some Mega Spore Probiotics (amazon, etc). These are spore based and superior in all ways to any other brand I've found. (I recovered from Lyme with over 2 yrs of antibiotics and used this brand to repair my gut microbiome.) The Megaspore have to be started slow because they cause die-off of of harmful gut bacteria; give at 1 cap 3xs weekly for starts per the package directions.

I wish you well and hope that you don't encounter too much of a wait period once you decide that you can no longer handle these increasing needs and decide to place your wife in a SNF where she'll receive the care she needs by people not having to provide these cares on a 24/7 basis.

My thanks to all of you for your quick and thoughtful answers. I'll work with the doctor to taper her off (although I have not seen ANY improvements in my wife's condition while on the drug). I am giving her plenty of fluids but will add even more. Hospice was here about a month ago. The nurse that did the assessment was recommending hospice but the doctor that makes the decision said "not yet". They suggested that I call them again in January.

Looks like Zoloft is your problem. The other problem, you can't let this go on. She is losing water and needs it replaced. She will dehydrate. So plenty of liquids. Maybe ensure for nutrients.

I know you may think this sounds crazy but my grandma use to mix water and flour together and drink it in it stoped her diarrhea one tablespoon and half cup of water

In Mom’s case, before she was diagnosed with dementia, the primary doc started Zoloft (sertraline) for depression and anxiety. Worked great, but she developed explosive watery diarrhea, which after a colonoscopy with biopsy was diagnosed as lymphocytic colitis. They stopped the medication and started budesonide, which resolved the problem relatively quickly. The GI doc said it wasn’t uncommon. A colonoscopy at this stage of course woukd be brutal for both of you.

Also our first primary didn’t taper her off the Zoloft. Yikes, 100% do not recommend stopping cold turkey. You’ve already put up with issue for this long, please do a reasonable taper, don’t add withdrawal symptoms as well!

When we started her on Cymbalta (duloxetine) later we started at less than the pediatric dose and worked up incredibly slowly. Any GI issues so far have been manageable.

Hope you get some relief soon!

My knee jerk response to your post is to have her checked for C Difficile, always a possibility if she has recently needed antibiotics or has outside caregivers who could have carried the infection to her.

A quick google search says GI issues are common with zoloft so could certainly be.
I would contact the doctor ASAP to back the dose down to where she was tolerating it without issue.

If you haven't done so, I wonder if a consult with hospice in order? Late stage dementia and little interest in eating could be signs that it's time to consider it.

Have you tried the BRAT diet? https://www.oregonclinic.com/diets-BRAT

Good luck