I have a disorder that causes me to faint. When it was first diagnosed they put me on a drug. Don’t remember the drug.
It really altered my brain.
I was a fast and accurate typer on a computer keyboard.
As I was writing a paper weird things kept showing up on the screen. There was a big disconnect between my brain and my fingers.
It scared me so much I immediately stopped taking the drug.
My sister-in-law has experienced this at least two times. She is on multiple medications for various conditions, and her husband monitored her dosage until he passed away. Despite his best efforts, there were a pair of episodes when her cognitive abilities began to decline and she even developed tremors. One doctor diagnosed Parkinson’s; another said she had dementia, a third decided her medications might be out of whack and did a complete review. He reduced dosage on a couple of them and eliminated a third, and within a few days, the tremors stopped, the fog lifted and her cognitive skills returned to normal.
Many older Americans see multiple specialists for various conditions. Even with electronic medical charts and screening for possible interactions, there are still countless episodes of elderly patients who wind up taking too much medication, not enough, or there’s an interaction the doctors and pharmacist missed. Since her husband’s death, my sister-in-law has been relying on her son and daughter to help with her meds. So far, there haven’t been any adverse consequences.