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I'm really glad you posted this topic. I statred visiting two people in a living facility just recently because I want to feel like I'm doing something good. The director told me a lot of people have alzheimers and some of them are sundowners and I actually thought she meant downs syndrome. This is all very new to me but I think the important thing is that I care and the rest I can learn over time.
My husband has Parkinson's and it appears he also has Sundowners. The doc told us he also has some dementia. What can I expect down-the-road? How long for the symptoms to worsen?
Hello Betsy,
This is a tough question to answer because symptom progression is different for different people. Generally speaking, the older you are the faster Parkinson’s progresses— and accordingly, its symptoms. While I can’t give you a time frame, I’d be happy to give you an idea of what might lie ahead. Could you clarify what your husband’s experience is like at present so I can give you an idea of what to expect down the road? When was he diagnosed?
Lori
Thank you for the info on sundowners syndrome. At times my husband acts as
described in the article, other times he is quite clear and able to sleep
between toileting. He gets very anxious during the day. Last night he
became confused and fearful. So what does all this mean? The symptoms vary
within patients and among different patients? Do patients with Parkinson's
characteristically exhibit sundowners?
Hello Betsy,
Roughly 20% of people with Parkinson’s develop dementia—usually late in the disease—and many of those people experience symptoms of Sundowner’s Syndrome. As I am not a doctor, I cannot provide a diagnosis, but from what you describe, it sounds like your husband is one of those people. A drug called Rivastigmine may reduce symptoms of Parkinson's-related dementia, and another drug called donepezil is known to reduce behavioral problems.
Some of what he might experience down the road includes:
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Visual hallucinations
• Shortened attention span
• Decline in mental abilities, such as memory, reasoning and intelligence
• Poor concentration
• Behavioral issues
Unlike Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s-related dementia does not usually affect language.
I recommend doing a little research on the two medications I mentioned and speaking to your husband’s doctor about ways to slow the progression of dementia symptoms.
I hope this information helps,
Lori
my mother-in-law just had a stroke.
her speech was affected. 2nd on in 6 wks.
now in the hospital she is showing signs of sundown syndrome.
it's heart breaking, because she is 70 and vibrent,smart and all togeather,she has always happy and her husband and her always traveled.
she had an infection in her kidneys and no doc found it and when she had the stroke they said she is sptic now.
i beleave she got both stroke from the bad infection that no one found.
is there hope it will go away,and is there anyone that can make it more comfortable for her?
she is still in the hospital and in a regular room with a nother person, that can't work. thank for any help i can get
sevc family
This article on Sundowner's Syndrom is right on! I'm caring for my mother, a stroke/A-Fib heart disease/dementia sufferer. She developed Sundowner's about 6 months ago and it terrified the whole family. Interestingly enough, her primary care physician and her neurologist never mentioned Sundowner's -- I learned about it from a nurse and researched it on Gilbert Guide.
Here's a tip. For reasons unrelated to Sundowner's, I started giving Mom 1000 mg of fish oil per day. THE SUNDOWNER'S WENT AWAY! After 3 days of fish oil, the episodes stopped and have not reappeared after a month.
It's worth a try for you too. Check on side-effects of fish oil (there are some) and take the capsules with food, as there are fishy burps.
If this continues, I'm going to dub fish oil the miracle drug of the decade.
I am caring for my mother who suffers from multiple diseases that can not be fixed or cured. She also experiences dementia and sundowners. Some nights the sundowners are worse than others, after caring for her for 8 months now I have noticed that nights there is a full moon is when the sundowners is worse. Is there anyone out there that has experienced the same thing or is this just a fluke?
Dear Jan,
Some patients with Alzheimer's disease experience "sundowning" because of changes in the brain (shrinkage). They are having difficulty sorting out clues in their environment; therefore, confusion, suspiciousness, and agitation are common because the brain's coping mechanisms are diminishing. Whether your mother's sundowning is made worse by the full moon, I can not tell (we often see more people in the Emergency Department at that time as well.) Also, it may be changes in "lighting" –being brighter during a full moon—that is causing more confusion for her.
Please see my article on Alzheimer's Disease: Understanding Sundowning Syndrome under my column on Hospice and Dementia Care.
Celebrating Life!
I have seen no increase in Sundowner's in my mother that correlate to the full moon, but I'll admit different people react differently. We're the family who saw a dramatic decrease in Sundowner's after putting mom on 1000 mg of fish oil per day. In fact, the sundowner's symptoms only appear occasionally and MUCH milder than before fish oil and it's been 4 months.
When sundowner's come back, (mildly), I think they are correlated with constipation! Mother gets a little paranoid about traffic outside the house, or puts her head in her hands as if sad, but when we interrupt her with a kiss, she comes out of it pretty easily. Resolving the constipation seems to resolve the sundowner's as well.
Not so easy, mind you. I've had recent success getting her to hydrate with V8 Splash. OK, it's not water, but she won't drink water. Splash is lower calorie than a lot of stuff. And if I put it in a wine glass, she treats it like cocktail hour and sips it heartily.
Just recently I found another hopeful therapy. People's Pharmacy was covering post-operation hospital stays. They cited a problem getting people out of the hospital because, post-op, they have to demonstrate bowel activity before discharge. People's Pharmacy mentioned hospitals testing c-section discharges that show treatment with sugarless gum get the patients released 30% faster than other patients. Theory is the sweetener in sugarless gum is sugar that has been rendered indigestible -- it moves thru the intestines and doesn't get absorbed. So it may push everything else thru. I'm trying it with mom. So far she's had a bowel movement daily instead of every 2-3 days. This is an improvement and we've had no sundowner's in the 2 weeks we've been experimenting.