My wife's Neurologist recommended a Psychiatrist-Experiences?

I feel your pain. I am totally pissed off at my wife's doctors. The medical system in this country needs to be overhauled from top to bottom. Stay strong.

Pretty much about sums it up. We are going to the psychiatrist on Monday but I'm about ready to adopt your approach 100%.

What I'm about to say isn't intended to be political. It's based on my own experience and observations. As a retired university professor, I'm very familiar with academia and the changes it's gone through in recent years. The same thing seems to have happened with hospitals and doctors' practices. In short, they are not really non-profit, as they claim to be, but are actually money-making behemoths with an eagle eye always on the bottom line. It would be fruitful to examine where all the money they raise goes. Things are totally out of whack when middle-class families have to incur decades of debt to send their kids to college, or the kids take out student loans that may not be paid off until their own kids are in college, as it happened with my own daughter. Hospitals, the best ones, are superb, with their spreading campuses, well-paid doctors, and luxurious facilities. We need big hospitals that can provide the advanced equipment excellent doctors (even if they are overworked and stressed out) we're fortunate to have in America, but, yes, the medical industrial complex is rigged. Too much bureaucracy, too many surveys, too many customer-satisfaction assessments. I have to fill out the exact same forms and sign them every single time I visit my state-of-the art heart clinic, where I see a cardiologist for 15 minutes. The building is impressive, if completely inhospitable, and I feel like a rat in a maze when I'm led from one place to another. I'm not a patient, I'm a widget. And we have people dying on the streets for lack of care. Education and health care should not be luxuries only for the rich. We need to get our priorities straight. In my humble opinion.

I think you and I are of the same mindset. My husband has Alz. He takes the memantine and wears the 24 hour patch, but I don’t think they help. I agree with everything you shared in your post and I learned most of it the hard way…

When we started this journey I chose neuropsychologists as adjuncts to my husbands PCP and the geriatrician the PCP recommended.
That being said, my husbands best friend is a psychiatrist and agreed with our plan. It has been over two years since the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment. We are now in the moderate stage, which is dementia.

We will be seeing a neurologist in November just to confirm the diagnosis, type of dementia and recommendations for going forward.
In the end, the goal is proceeding with some quality of life for both of us, knowing that this progresses with unknown territory by the day. And unknown territory for many doctors too.

Where a psychiatrist would be helpful is managing medication but with care of the whole person- body, mind, spirit - likes and loves, and is good at letting a person feel and express needs.
This is tough for us caregivers but so tough for the one with the disease and just having someone care beyond care is helpful.

My mother, who suffered with vascular dementia for ten years, was referred to a psychiatrist. I thought it was to do with depression, but learned it was for review of her medications and recommendations of additional or alternative medications. We eventually stopped taking mother to her because the psychiatrist's recommendations were not especially helpful; we didn't see results we had hoped for. We had a pharmacist to review her list of medications. There are also online resources for checking for drug interactions, if one is concerned about that.
In the moment, however, we would have tried anything that held hope of improvement.
Best wishes to you.

My 83-year-old husband George was diagnosed last February with vascular dementia. Last month, the diagnosis was revised to Alzheimer, vascular dementia, and Lewy Body with Parkinsonian symptoms. In addition, he is immobile due to chronic pain. (He still suffers from sciatica even though he had two major back surgeries last year.)

George is a retired professor whose hobbies were travel, cinema and books. He was fluent in French and was able to read Latin as well as novels written in French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and German. Now, he can't even make a call on his cell phone without my help--let alone read a book in English or watch movies (he taught film history among other subjects). He is severely depressed and anxious; and never wants to leave the house except for doctors' appointments.

Last month, I found a geriatric psychiatrist who presecribed Seroquel for him. Since starting that drug three nights ago, we already noticed a difference in his attitude although he is still bitter about his diminished capacities. I am taking him to another geriatric psychiatrist new week to review all of his medications.

I wish all of you the best of luck. Hold onto hope and faith.

My 83-year-old husband George was diagnosed last February with vascular dementia. Last month, the diagnosis was revised to Alzheimer, vascular dementia, and Lewy Body with Parkinsonian symptoms. His brain volume has reduced him to the 11% in his age group.) In addition, he is immobile due to chronic pain. (He still suffers from sciatica even though he had two major back surgeries last year.)

George is a retired professor whose hobbies were travel, cinema and books. He was fluent in French and was able to read Latin as well as novels written in French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and German. Now, he can't even make a call on his cell phone without my help--let alone read a book in English or watch movies (he taught film history among other subjects). He is severely depressed and anxious; and never wants to leave the house except for doctors' appointments.

Last month, I found a geriatric psychiatrist who presecribed Seroquel for him. Since starting that drug three nights ago, we have already noticed a difference in his attitude although he is still bitter about his diminished capacities. (His self-awareness is due to what his neuro-psychologist said was his "brilliant mind" and "superior intellect.") I am taking him to another geriatric psychiatrist new week to review all of his medications.

I wish all of you the best of luck. Hold onto hope and faith. Love with all your heart and soul.

Best,
George's Wife

Jumping in here because i need to get this off my chest. So my husband has parkinsons and mcd. He got a supra pubic cath last dec. He is experiencing uti and hospitalized recently. He has a shutdown bladder, nuerogenic, meaning that he feels no pain in bladder to identify uti. We have to look for fever and chills and confusion. So he had confusion with no fever yhis past week. Not sure if this is uti or mcd. I tried explaining to er docyors as his bloodwork sas slightly normal but not enough to jusyify antibioticd.

Sorry to hear about George but glad Seroquel is working for him. It has helped my wife also.
I am hopeful our visit to a psychiatrist today will give some help on med management.