How Caregivers for Dementia Patients Manage Mood and Personality Changes

Susan Hirsch was visiting her father in the hospital where he was recuperating after a fall and was shocked to find him — long devoted to her mother — flirting with a nurse as if he were “17 and in the Navy again,” she said.

Ms. Hirsch, a 67-year-old memory care educator from Palmyra, Pa., scolded her father. But the admonishment only enraged the 93-year-old man; she recalled him saying, “in not nice words,” to get out of his room as she scuttled away.

More than 11 million adults in the United States are caring for people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. In addition to memory loss, most people with dementia will experience mood and behavior changes including aggression, apathy, disorientation, depression, wandering, impulsivity and delusions.

Many caregivers describe mood and personality changes as the most upsetting symptoms. While antipsychotic and sedative medications are often used to manage dementia-related mood issues, they have limited efficacy.

To get on top of — and feel less toppled by — mood changes, it’s helpful for caregivers to remember that those shifts are caused by changes in the brain, said Dr. Nathaniel Chin, a geriatrician and associate professor in the department of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“They’re no one’s fault,” he said, and recognizing this can help you “feel less upset at your loved one.”