My husband has all the symptoms of Stage 5, but has frontal & temporal lobe dementia. It seems the only drug that neurologists prescribe is seroquel, but am not sure if it calms him down or not since he seems more agitated. I give him zanax that eventually calms him. Am curious what meds help your spouses, and what dosage do they prescribe. I find that every neurologist is more at a loss than I am.
cookie80- my husband also has frontal temporal dementia. Stage 7. Nothing works for him but seroquel. I gave him a Xanax once in a while when he was at home. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. I also found that most doctors are clueless a to what to do. Charlie is given 50 mg seroquel twice a day. It was 3 times a day but the mid-day dose has been discontinued.
First, welcome to the boards. This is a great place for support and information.
My husband has frontotemporal dementia also. Seroquel works for him too but he was first given risperadone and that made him more agitated. Maybe you could ask the neurologist about risperadone. They both are the same type of anti-psychotic. My husband takes 25 mg of seroquel twice a day but I have permission to give him 2 more pills if needed. He is also on the antidepressent Cymbalta, aricept and namenda. Not everyone with FTD can take aricept or namenda but so far my husband has had no adverse effects. On the other hand, I don't know if they are helping. I'm not sure of his stage (the doctors have never mentioned stages) but I think he is considered moderate.
cookie80, welcome, you will be very happy that you found this wonderful, supportive place. My husband has FTD (he was dx'd at 58) and had behavioral issues for over a year. he was put on Aricept (which the dr's believe made him have suicidal thoughts), Namenda (which increased his aggitation and aggression). they finally put him on a combination of meds to control his aggression and agitation. Seroquel (200 mgs/day, now 350 mg/day) which has worked wonders in controlling his aggression but has had to be increased as his disease progresses, neurontin (300mgs/day) and clonopin (0.05 mg) once a day. I know that seems like a lot of meds, but it allowes him to be home with me instead of being in an institution. He couldn't tolerate risperadol-made him a zombie. He's in mid-stage (stage 5, some stage 6 symptoms) and has begun experiencing a decline recently.
My dh has been on .5 mg of Risperdal twice a day for a year now. The pcp said I could give him more at any time for agitation, but I have never found this helpful. For a while when he was being uncooperative I increased the evening dose by giving him an extra half pill, but there was no improvement. I've dropped it again and he has improved but I have no idea whether it is related. I do think it helps to give him the evening dose in the late afternoon rather than waiting till suppertime.