When the psychiatrist originally prescribed an antidepressant and a medication to treat mood swings, she refused to take them. More recently, however, I have succeeded in convincing her to. I was concerned about her taking pills that may be losing potency--the prescription was filled mid-October--and she got strangely belligerent yesterday and I thought she might have taken a second dose (she took a first dose of the pills hours early). But the expiration on both meds is about a year from now...
Sundowning, at least for my mom, was really never about what time of day it was. We just noticed that she was different in the early evening when my SIL visited after work. She would insist that she had a terrible communicable disease, etc. When I would call her in the AM, nothing was wrong.
I think since she can't reliably follow instructions like this, you have to give her the correct number of tablets, hand her some water and watch her swallow them. The poor lady seems to be too prone to confusion to be trusted to take her meds correctly, consistently.
In reference to Cipro and Bactrim you need to make certain she has 6 8oz glasses of water a day at a minimum, as Bactrim can cause kidney stones or renal impairment which will make your mother loopy. Flush her kidneys well as she can get dehydrated.
My Mom got real loopy and Sundowners after her UTI Drugs, very common!
It's very important that you tell the psychiatrist that she only started taking them in midMarch, not when prescribed in October. The second med you mentioned is the generic version of Seroquel which is an atypical antipsychotic. It can be a miracle drug for some folks with depression.
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