i have a patient who has alzheimers and has had a stroke. she isn't able, normally, to talk at all.

i visited her today and her husband related that he forgot to give her her seroquel last night and that she talked very plainly through the night. he related that she's done it before when he couldn't get her to take the meds. i know that she is very resistant to taking meds and that a variety of "tricks" are used..ice cream, etc.

her care plan is at her daughter's house so i haven't read anything about her meds. i didn't know that seroquel was used for alzheimer's disease and am curious about that.

now.......could seroquel inhibit her speech? her husband, who is 85, asked me me and i told him that i didn't know. i can tell that he has hope that his wife will once again talk. he spoke of her being heavily sedated, before i came into the picture, and that a local doctor (general practioner) took her off of her original meds(which he didn't know the name of) and put her on the seroquel.

my understanding from the patient's husband, today, is that her words were very clear and concise. i did not ask him if she made "sense" as i didn't want to complicate his perceptions.

any information that you could give me about this would be very much appreciated.

[psisci]

How much seroquel is she taking, and at what times? I really have no clue how to answer this. These types of meds can be used in dementias as they block dopamine thus increasing activiity of acetylcholine which is very important for memory and cognitive functioning, but the primary activity of seroquel at low doses usually used for sleep is just antihistamine in nature. I am not aware of how this would effect a stroke that has damaged language production areas of the brain. However, what I would do in this case is take her off the seroquel, use something like ambien for sleep if needed and see if that helps.

75 mgs morning and night.......

i'm totally puzzled about it also.

thank you...i'll try to get the care plan and read it. perhaps then we'll know why the attending doc prescribed it.