“My father started hallucinating. What can we do to help?”
My father is 78 years old and is taking medication for diabetes and his heart. Recently he has been hallucinating and says he has been seeing his dead relatives. It is worrying us a lot. What can we do to help?
15 Answers
Give him an opportunity to see a psychiatrist who is willing to talk with him as well as prescribe medication.
The hallucinations could be due to the start of dementia. Talk with his primary health care provider to ensure that the medications are not causing the symptoms. Sometimes people who are close to dying will see dead relatives.
Consult with his medical doctor immediately.
Take him to a Doctor and find out the cause for the hallucinations!
He's 78 years old. Everything starts to go, sometimes in the wrong order that we would have it happen. Talk to him. Ask him what it's like to see dead relatives. Would he like to talk to them? Does he have unfinished business he'd like to express? The older we get, the weaker our mental facilities, the better our memories of the good old days. Maybe he'd like to talk about those times. Maybe about 15 minutes a day would be lovely.
Please make an appointment with your PCP or internist — he/she will assess whether to refer him to a neurologist and/or psychiatrist, who will administer a series of cognitive tests and brain imaging — this is in order to pinpoint a diagnosis, e.g., it could be anything from a side effect of his meds, to a form of dementia. It is also possible that he is not actually visually “seeing” his dead relatives, but imagining them in his mind — this is not an actual hallucination, and may inform his subsequent diagnosis. A diagnosis is necessary for proper treatment. It’s also key that you take him ASAP because a baseline is important for the doctor to establish — this will help track the effectiveness of his meds and also monitor his decline or lack thereof.
The medication may need to be adjusted depending on the fluctuation of the blood sugars and blood pressure readings. He may also be suffering from some depression.
If he has been taking those medications for a long time already, it may not be those medications, unless his memory is failing and he is inadvertently taking more than he should. Perhaps you should be monitoring or giving the meds instead. If those meds are new to him, they could be causing that side effect so in that case let the prescriber know and change out the meds. Alternatively, the hallucinating could be caused by a progressive dementia, so a psychiatrist or neuropsychologist should be consulted.
Your father may be having a reaction to his medication. Call the doctor who prescribed the medication. If the hallucinations are not being caused by the medication, then take your doctor for aconsultation with a psychiatrist.
Contact his medical doctors immediately
Your father's doctors should be alerted and they should advise you whether your father should needs to see one of them or another doctor such as a psychiatrist.
Cloyd Taylor, M.Th, PhD
Cloyd Taylor, M.Th, PhD
It could be several things. I will start with the easiest to handle: He could be having a reaction to his new medicine. It could be the onset of dementia. And, lastly, and the hardest to hear: He could be reaching the end of his life. I have been with many people before their death when they speak of seeing relatives. If you're religious, this can be comforting. If you prefer science, this is the mind preparing death and there are chemical changes that explain why, but the mind is a complex organ and no one knows for sure. But take him to his family physician so he can run some tests.
Don’t be afraid and worry about that. Ask him about it. The concept of spirits who have passed away are real and it is either one of the medication he is taking such as ambiem or it is spiritual over anything else.
Have him see a psychiatrist who can evaluate the medications he is on to see if they are causing the hallucinations. He/she will be able to recommend a medication protocol to deal with the hallucinations.
I am sure you're very worried about your father. There could be a number of reasons for the "hallucinations." I would encourage you to have your father seen by a medical or mental health professional to further explore the nature of his perceptual experiences. You could follow up with his medical provider to have his medications reviewed and changed, if needed, as older individuals may have different reactions to certain medications. You may also inquire about neuropsychological testing, which can rule out any cognitive changes that may explain his experience. Further, it is important to note it is not uncommon for individuals to report seeing dead relatives, especially if their spirituality is a big part of their life values. Hope this gives you and your family some things to consider.
