Many months ago, I wrote about the differences between Delusions and Hallucinations. Today, I’d like to review the topic of Hallucinations, once again, if I might.
What is a Hallucination? A Hallucination is seeing something that no one else experiences - even smells. It could be anything that appears real to the person experiencing the phenomenon, but has no bearing in actual reality to anyone else. If a person were to see bugs or ants crawling up their arms and smothering them, and began to scream - this is because it’s a real sensation and visual to them - but to those around them (hopefully medical staff) it is something that is induced by drugs or some other compound that has entered into the person’s brain/psyche.
So it is with LBD.
When Mom called me and was very upset, probably about 2 years ago, she told me she was in the living room trying to be safe while all these people came into the house. She was crying in desperation. She told me they were taking things and laughing at her. She was horrified and mortified. I asked her to hold the phone up so I could hear them (something seemed amiss about this happening), but there was nothing there. She was upset that I remained so calm. You see, for her the experience was quite real as it “occurred”. For me, though, it was an event that was inexplicable and made no sense.
Now, Mom was in the diagnostic stage of LBD; I say this because we really hadn’t a clue as to what was going on - we just knew she was a great deal dottier than we’d ever seen her. This was causing great concern. According to Lewy Body Dementia via Helpguide.com, these may occur in the later stage of AD, while with LBD they can occur in the early, mid, and later stages of the malady.
One man who is caring for his wife, suffering from LBD, talks about how his wife is always seeing cats. She sees them in the corner, next to her, in her lap - just about everywhere. He explains that he needs to be quite careful not to step on them, so he watches his wife’s eyes carefully. He has found this to be a very charming hallucination and they are able to enjoy it - although he hasn’t the ability to actually experience them as she does.
But what causes these hallucinations? Good question. It took some digging, but I believe I was able to find something that imitates a good response. According to the article, Parkinsonsim and Related Disorders (Rabey, Josè Martin. "Hallucinations and psychosis in Parkinson's disease." Parkinsonism & related disorders 15 (2009): S105-S110.) there is a defect in the production of dopamine on the brain, which enables the brain to begin produce psychotic effects that are more coping than helping.
While Seroquel (Quetiapine) has truly helped Mom, it is truly something that needs to be monitored closely (she is on a relatively low dosage). Mom hasn’t had any hallucinations for quite some time, now, and is happily dispensing stories based on delusions, instead. Yes, Delusions. Remember, there is a rather big difference between the two.
Okay, so back to hallucinations - LBD patients, and Parkinson’s patients aren’t the only ones to suffer from such a symptom. No, remember I mentioned above that AD patients suffer in the later stages from this affliction. Perhaps it takes longer for the tau proteins and beta amyloid plaques to affect the brain (as they do work so differently from the Lewy bodies), that they reach that part of the brain much later.
Anyhow, that’s all I have to share for today. I hope it has given you a little more information, or at least bitten you to do a tad more research yourself.
Below is a video posted by a daughter who is showing her father having both hallucinations and delusions. To be honest, this is a bit (not completely) what it is like with Mom. It may seem sad, but it gives a great deal more illustration and reality to the phenomenon. In fact, this poor man has less mobility than Mom - it's the conversation that is quite similar (although Mom is a bit easier to understand, as well).
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