4 months ago my mom walked her 4 dogs 3 miles a day. Never drank or did drugs in her life was part of a community that everyone knew her and she would give advice to everyone about eating organic and eating right. She is 77 years old but was always in the best shape. One day 4 months ago she didn't want to talk, drive and couldn't answer simple questions. Her primary doctor ruled out dementia after she talked to her and she passed all the test. She had 4 mri's and 3 cat scans and 6 different blood test for almost every thing you could imagine. She also had a frontal lobe pet scan which came back perfectly normal. Everything came back perfectly fine so they ruled out dementia and Alzheimers. We saw a Nerologist, Pyschologist, and the Psychatrist who is now in charge of her. Since we seen him he has no idea but he gave her Viibyrd (depression medicine) Invega (pyschosis medicine) colonzapan (anti anxiety medicine) and Trazodone. None of them worked but she would wake up 3 times over a period of 2 months and be perfectly fine like for the day like how she was before only to wake up the next morning to be in that same vegetative state as before. When that medicine didn't work he switched her to riddling, lunesta, and 2 other drugs and didn't even ween her off. We saw that medicine working and after taking that medicine for 2 days we started to see progression and on the 3rd day she was fine until later on that day she was driving with my sister and my mom started laughing and my sister thought it was just because she saw something funny but then she started yelling to the top of her lungs and had mass hysteria it was crazy. We called the ambulance over and the emergency room Dr. was surprised that the Dr. gave her all that medicine and switched her over to downers to uppers overnight. We recently weened her off all the medicine and now she is not taking anything. We are thinking about giving her CBD oil or even some people suggested micro dose's of mushrooms. Nobody knows or seen this before so we don't know what else to do. I know my mom isn't depressed she is just confused because she says the tv is going too fast for her and she cant even watch tv.
From the article: "Encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, usually is the result of a viral infection, but it also can be caused by bacteria, fungi or parasites—or, as doctors now realize, by an autoimmune disorder.
In the case of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, severe brain inflammation occurs when the immune system attacks special proteins on the surface of nerve cells in the brain called NMDA receptors. These receptors control various cognitive functions, mood, behavior and personality traits—so when they are compromised, the brain malfunctions.
The resulting symptoms include mood and personality changes, violent outbursts, paranoia, psychosis, memory loss, speech problems, numbness, seizures, involuntary movements, increased heart rate, irregular heart rhythm, slowed breathing and/or decreased levels of consciousness. Patients sometimes sink into an unresponsive catatonic state that may last for weeks. Some experts even suspect that anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is the true cause underlying many cases of “demonic possession” described in the Bible!
This disease is largely unknown, having first been reported in the medical literature only six years ago. It typically strikes in early adulthood, but it has been diagnosed in children as young as one and in seniors as old as 85. It can strike both genders, though more than 75% of those affected are female."
I hope your mom gets some help and that she continues to improve back to her normal state. If not, you might research Dr. Oliver Sacks. He wrote many books about odd brain disorders. The one I read was "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat." He also wrote Awakenings, which was made into a movie with Robin Williams.
I think that you need another psychiatrist who will start with one med. Try it for 4 weeks to see if it works and then try another one if it does not. The extreme laughter sounds like the antidepressants sent her into a manic state which they can do when the dose is too high.
Sounds to me like her current mental state is due to having been over medicated and that does happen. I hope something can be done to help your mother soon.
Olande, how is your mother doing now? How long since she's been off all the mood medicines?