re use of haldol in elderly in article yfqmlek iv co l andrew cmu edu lawrence curcio lc b andrew cmu edu writes i ve seen people in their forties and fifties become disoriented and demented during hospital stays in the examples i ve seen drugs were definitely involved my own father turned into a vegetable for a short time while in the hospital he was fifty three at the time and he was on separate drugs no wonder he became confused with so many drugs it is almost impossible to know which one is causing the problem and because some drugs potentiate the effect of each other they can make the side effects all the worse and even dangerous kinda like mixing alcohol and antihistamines he was disoriened the doctors thougt they should put him on something else as well unfortunately doctors prescribe drugs to treat the side effects of the drugs a patient is receiving if one drug they are taking causes the patient s blood pressure to go up many times an antihypertensive is prescribed instead of re evaluating the need for the original drug this is why many older adults are trying to take a dozen or so drugs at home procure a list of the drugs your grandmother is getting and discuss it with an independent doc her problems may not be the effect of haldol at all haldol may have been used validly or it may have been prescribed because other medication confused her and because the hospital normally prescribes haldol for the confused elderly i fully agree in addition she proably should be examined by another doctor who can re evaluate the need for the medications she is taking i can t remember the guidelines i either saw in a text or heard during a lecture but any elderly adult who is receiving medications should have the need for the drug re evaluated regularly if her current physician is unwilling to do this find one who will either check the phone book for a physician who specializes in geriatric medicine or gerontology or contact a physician referral line or the american medical society by finding a geriatric specialist he she will more likely be in tune with the special needs of elderly adults and maybe can help
