What Are Common Causes of Hallucinations in the Elderly?

I'm now starting to worry that my mother's doctors may have harmed her by carelessly prescribing a very large number of medications.

My grandmother turned 100 two months ago. She lost her only child around 10 months ago. Her vision is pretty good to the point where she can make you out from 15 plus feet away. Her hearing has diminished to the point where you have to yell for her to understand what you are saying.

All said, she can carry on a lucid conversation, but her short term memory is shot. You constantly have to repeat things you told her only 5 - 10 minutes prior, yet her long term memory is decent. Recently on occasion she has had hallucinations to the point she sees people outside her house skiing or ballroom dancing. She also recently fell but is unaware how she fell, the only evidence some bruising along her side. She also has become quite irritable, particularly in the evenings and is eager to get even family members out of her house. Her sleep habits vary, but typically goes down at 8 and is up at 10. Is it possible she has vascular dementia?

My Mum has hallucinations pretty much every day. She images Dad, who died last year, is a sleeping bag on the sofa. She believes an old lady has been to visit her and has lost her cat, small children have been running around her apartment and a couple with gaunt faces held a child with a "goat face" on the window sill. She is absolutely adamant this is all true and cooked dinner for them all yesterday and was surprised that they all refused to eat anything. Medical support services , Surrey - UK, have been pretty useless, passing Mum's case between hospital, GP, health care professionals, private care companies etc. We are pretty much at a loss as to what to do to help Mum.

My great grandfather had a stroke two days ago but did not go to the hospital. Now he is seeing things that aren't there -- stuff like airplanes crashing into water, dark shadows with the figure of a human and sometimes he thinks he is in the hospital. What can I do to help? I'm so worried. Please help! We cannot get him to go to the hospital either!

Sometimes a particular sleep aid can trigger hallucinations, especially if an older person is not accustomed to periods of deep sleep. I've been around elderly people who have had bad reactions to Xanax or prescription sleeping pills like Ambien. They often get caught in a semi-awake situation and become convinced there are monsters in the room or visitors are really gangsters or plants have come to life. If an elderly relative complains about a lack of sleep, my suggestion would be to have a doctor prescribe the lowest dose possible at first and sneak up on the problem.

There's also a thing called hospital psychosis that can trigger hallucinations. If an elderly person spends too much time without normal light cues, they can get agitated from a lack of sleep and start hallucinating. The nurse who comes in with their nighttime medications may be a trained assassin, or an image on the television could become a terrifying monster. When visiting elderly hospital patients, it might help to open the windows in order to provide light cues to their brains.

@anon337360: Any time something like this happens with an elderly person, my first thought is a urinary tract infection. They may have no other symptoms other than the confusion/hallucinations. A simple urine test can confirm whether she does, and antibiotics usually clear them up fairly quickly. Good luck.

Two weeks ago, my grandmother had a nightmare. She said she saw frogs and whatever else. It left her restless all night. The next day, I took her to the hairdressers and she was seeing things. She is pretty much blind now (she's 95) but she was seeing trees and talking strangely, like going in and out of hallucinations. She remembered what she had for dinner the night before, then she would say there's a nice cottage and that she's going to get her eyes fixed tomorrow. She was hearing music and seeing things while getting her hair done. She also accused the hairdresser of taking money (she never has behaved that way before, the hairdresser has known her for years, she got worried and told my family about it all).

I don't know if she's had another nightmare but her hallucinations seem to be nice things. Things from her life, like the countryside, pipers (music). I just hate to see her like this. Is there medicine for it?

My Grandmother has been telling me that she's seeing people who are "not really there". She believes it's visions. For example, "two people on white horses with crazy shirts" and "a woman in red that put a gift in a basket in her den". She knows that what she's seeing is not real, but she's not sure why she's seeing this.

She is 101 years old, no history of CVA although she has high BP moderately controlled with meds. Should we have her evaluated by a neurologist? I'm sure they will find brain atrophy at her age, but was wondering if she might benefit from dementia meds? Thanks for any input.

@anon128052 - It sounds like you and your family are doing very well at trying to remain patient and sympathetic to your mother. The only advice I could give is to try to maintain that patience and keep visiting, even when she is increasingly hostile.

I know it’s difficult to maintain a positive relationship with an elderly person who is suffering from these kinds of hallucinations, but since dementia is so common in elderly people it is often ignored and that can make it a lot worse. I would try to remain positive and engage your mother in positive activities. It can be hard caring for an elderly person suffering from dementia, but maintaining a strong bond is always helpful.

I hope this helps you a bit.

My mother has recently gone into a nursing home. She has macular degeneration but good hearing. She has now started to "hear" conversations along the hall which she believes are my sister and myself arguing about her. Today she is hearing me outside the home shouting that I hate her!

She thinks I am staying in the home and not going to see her and have left a recording of myself so she can speak to me when she rings. She has also seen my sister and myself in coffins in a neighboring room. Obviously, she is very depressed and frightened by these thoughts which she is aware are not real - although she says they are more real than everyday stuff.

How can we (or can we) reassure her and should we be very sympathetic and listen attentively, matter of fact and say now Mum you know that's not true, don't really know how to handle it. Mum has morphine patches for the pain of rheumatoid arthritis and is inclined not to drink enough which makes her dehydrated and gives her cystitis, both of which I know have given her hallucinations in the past - but this is different.

The carers are very good at making sure she drinks plenty.