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Dementia and Alzheimer's

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Pain medication patches for Demetia patients

2 replies

Robotmonkeybutler · 01/08/2026 08:31

I'm looking for some advice about pain medication for my mother who has dementia. She's 67, diagnosed with early onset mixed demetia around 4 years ago. Symptoms started in her mid 50's.

She's always been a difficult person to deal with and I previously had no real relationship with her. My dad has been caring for her at home but he's really struggling now. He thinks she's ready for a care home but I recently did some caring for her and I don't think she's quite there yet.

The main conclusion I came to was that she's in a lot of pain from her arthritis. I think this is making her aggressive and agitated. She can walk as she seemed better when I took her for regular walks round the block.

She's on a cocktail of drugs at the minute including statins, blood pressure medication, metformin and a demetia medication. I was shocked to learn that she had been taken off all her pain medication a while ago. No idea why the doctors think its ok to prolong her life but leave her in pain and uncomfortable!!!

I'm going to request an urgent medication review and ask for some pain medication to keep her comfortable. She has stomach issues and doesn't like taking medication (my dad manages this for her)so I was thinking of asking for patches. I don't know where to start with it though. Does anyone have any suggestions for arthritis pain patches for demetia?x

OP posts:
LifeOfBriony · 01/08/2026 08:36

My Dad has pain patches - he has dementia and takes a number of different drugs for different conditions. He went through a period of refusing to take medication by mouth and the pain patches were prescribed at that time. Each patch lasts for a week and they seem to work for him.

I think the care home asked his GP if they could prescribe the patches, so I would ask for these at the medication review.

CoffeeMad18 · Yesterday 21:02

My mother has Alzheimer’s and dementia. She has arthritis in both hips so struggles to walk - she has pain relief in the form of a patch. We change it once a week and we sick it on her upper back as she doesn’t feel it so will not peel it off.

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