I am perhaps grasping at straws, but I am concerned about potential drug
interactions or ?? causing intermittent selective memory loss and
disorientation in my father who is 80 years of age, about six feet tall
and 175 pounds. About nine months ago he had a minor stroke (which,
following a CT scan, the physician described as a few ruptured capillaries
in the brain). He was left with periodic balance problems when he walks.
He has normal speech and no paralysis evident. It appears that incidents
of memory loss and disorientation began shortly following the stroke and
were sudden-onset. An assessment was then carried out to determine if
these events indicated Alzheimer’s, but the results were negative.
The memory loss and disorientation appear most often to occur following
sleep. Over the past nine months, there appear to have been two distinct
types of events: First, minor disorientation lasting only several minutes
at most and second, events which last perhaps several hours. Last night,
before bedtime, he wanted to go to see his wife (who lives with him!). He
does not believe that his wife is his wife but rather that someone else
is. He knows who I am but cannot remember my month of birth or the town I
live in. This event has now lasted >12 hours, about four times longer
than any event in the past. His general behavior, manners, speech,
hearing, sight etc. remain normal — he is still a nice guy who can carry
on a fairly normal conversation but thinks some events from his past are
changed. While with my parents this morning, my father kept asking me to
call his wife to let her know he was OK, while sitting in the room with
her. If prior events are indicative, he will (I hope) be back to normal
in a few hours. His neurologist seems unconcerned and feels that these
events will pass. One perhaps significant aspect is that he remembers
these events and doesn’t understand his behavior.
Because the physicians seem to be at a loss, one question came to mind,
whether or not such behavior could be caused by some drug or interaction
between drugs. The following is a list of drugs he is currently taking
(taken off the prescription drug bottles):
ATENOLOL, 50 mg, 1/day
AMILORIDE HCL+HYDROCL THD, 5+50 mg, one-half per day
GLYBURIDE, 5 mg, 1/day
On the advice of his GP, he is also taking over the counter drugs:
Entrophen (enteric coated ASA 325 mg), 1/day
B Complex vitamins, 1/day
Vitamin C 500 mg, 1/day
Vitamin E 800 mg, 1/day
Cod liver oil caps., 1/day
If anyone has any ideas as to if any of the above or combination thereof
are the source of the problem, or any other observations or ideas, please
e-mail me a reply at hal…@resudox.net as well as posting for the
information of others. News updates are slow coming in here.
Thank you very much for your assistance.
–
*Basil Halhed, Box 8001, R.R. #2, Dunrobin (Ottawa), Ont. K0A 1T0
*HEI: Tel:(613) 832-0451 Fax:(613) 832-0452 +videoconferencing+
*Internet: basil.hal…@devcan.ca | aa…@freenet.carleton.ca
*UUCP: uunet!dev…@basil.halhed Fidonet: basil halhed @1:163/508
).