What can bring on sudden delirious behavior in the elderly?
My father started acting very strangely this afternoon.
This evening before he had dinner, he asked for a cold drink (he never wants to drink anything cold). Then he asked for coffee (he has never drank coffee in his life.)
Then he had dinner and ate about half of it.
Half an hour later he asked for his food in the bedroom (he never has food in the bedroom and was sitting in the living room.)
When I told him he'd just had dinner he looked confused and said 'so aren't I getting any food?'
He asked for his urine bottle but then said he doesn't want it and now he is huffing and puffing (a bit short of breath)
He has also been singing all day - a kind of nonsense - he constantly says whoopsy daisy, diddley boddley do, sort of thing....
Any ideas what could have brought on this sudden change in behavior?
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Could be a UTI, could be a stroke or a dozen other things. Some innocuous and some very dangerous.
The breathing difficulty is also very worrisome.
I think he may be dehydrated. He hasn't been drinking enough for the last few days. He often has difficulty breathing as he suffers from panic attacks and uses an inhaler so that isn't a new condition
Sudden onset of odd behavior of any kind often turns out to be UTI driven.
My mother's dementia was relatively stable, but a sudden onset of intense sun-downing heralded her first UTI in MC. It can impact each person in different ways - the real key is a sudden change.
Sudden onset of night time bed wetting heralded the second UTI several years later (this was despite max briefs, max pad inserted and toileting before bed - soaked EVERYTHING!)
As for the huffing/puffing, my mother would often start this odd breathing when we were headed to appointments, like short breath intake with obvious noisy (puffing?) breath out, almost with pursed lips. At least one place asked about it (dentist I think) - she'd only do this at those times, never any other time, so it was just a nervous habit, touch of anxiety?
Get him checked out for ongoing stroke (in the ER) - damage from a stroke can be mitigated with early intervention.
I looked up several of these medications online and there has been a link to some in this class with early dementia.
You may discuss with his doctor whether it would possible to try weaning him from this drug to see if there is any improvement in his mental condition.
This happened with my mom (different medication -of course- but same situation) and mom came back completely.
My thoughts are with you.