When it might not be Alzheimer's.

At the end of August 2008 my father-in-law died of Lewy Body Dementia. This is a very difficult type of dementia that can cause the sufferer to do bizarre things that are the opposite of what anyone would expect them to do. It is a common dementia but still not many people have heard of it and often it is misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's. Some of the medications prescribed for Alzheimer's can lead to serious side effects and even death in a patient with LBD. More doctors and the public needs to be aware of Lewy Body Dementia so that the correct treatment can be provided early on in the illness.

My father-in-law was a very intelligent polite man who worked for the Pentagon at the time of his retirement. When he was about eighty years old, he began doing strange things in the middle of the night. He would get up out of bed, pull the bedsheets off of the bed, and then twirl them over the railing of the stairway that went down to the front foyer. His wife had no luck stopping him from doing this. He would have no memory of having done this when asked about it the next day. Also at night, while still in bed, his legs would move as though he was running.

Early on in the illness my mother-in-law was mystified about what was happening to him. His behavior worsened to the point where he swore at her and called her names. She became fearful of what he might do to her while he was in one of these states. She called an ambulance one day to take him to the hospital where he was largely unresponsive during the day but tried to wander the halls at night. The doctors put him on the very medications that can worsen the symptoms of Lewy Body Dementia. It took our having to stay overnight at the hospital to restrain him in bed so that they would stop giving him the wrong medications and so that we could keep him alert enough during the day to get him home away from the hospital where he was being harmed because of not being diagnosed correctly.

Shortly after the hospital stay he was seen by a neurologist as well as a doctor who specializes in geriatric patients and he was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia. He was prescribed medication that alleviated his symptoms considerably for over two years. But then the illness began to run its course and he deteriorated, eventually having to go to a nursing home where he died within a month.

A correct diagnosis is essential as without a correct diagnosis, the sufferer and his or her family can go through hell while the patient's bizarre symptoms continue unabated and can even worsen because of treatment that is not correct for that illness.

Ginny