<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/09/australias-health-watchdog-warns-patients-are-being-overprescribed-psychotropic-medication>
"Glenda Parkin was 56 when she was diagnosed with younger-onset dementia, a
rare visual variant of Alzheimer’s disease known as posterior cortical atrophy.
She became functionally blind and her ability to perceive the world around her
gradually deteriorated.
While the diagnosis forced Parkin to retire at the zenith of her career as a
school principal in Perth, losing her abilities to read and write alongside
other basic capabilities, she carried on a fulfilling life, according to her
husband, Bronte, her carer for 10 years.
The couple travelled together, with Glenda “effectively seeing the world
through my eyes”, he said. She continued to pursue her love of music as a
member of a community choir and took on new challenges, becoming a dementia
advocate.
However, Glenda’s quality of life took a turn for the worse when in 2020 the
couple sought their medical team’s help for Glenda’s changing behaviour and
sleeplessness. She was prescribed quetiapine, an antipsychotic medicine.
The previous year she had also been prescribed a sedative, lorazepam, to treat
anxiety, agitation, restlessness, aggression and occasionally delusional
behaviour – common in people with dementia.
Not long after starting on quetiapine, Glenda began to experience unusual
muscular movements in her legs and lose her balance. One evening as Bronte was
cooking, she toppled over on the hard timber floor of their home, fracturing
her pelvic bones.
“It was only in the hospital we found out that the leg movements were caused by
the medicines,” Bronte said.
The hospital psychiatrist explained that Glenda’s leg movement disorder was a
side-effect of the quetiapine – something that had not been discussed as a risk
when it was prescribed – and he recommended that both medications be slowly
phased out.
Although her pelvic bones eventually healed, Glenda never regained the ability
to walk, making it impossible for Bronte to care for her in their home. She was
admitted to an aged care home where for the first six months she was confined
to bed 24 hours a day because putting her into a nursing chair was too risky.
She remained there until she died in 2023."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
