My husband has PSP and shown signs of aggression, is this common and what triggers, apart from frustration, has been experienced. Your help very much appreciated as it can be so sudden and frightening.
PSP and aggression: My husband has PSP and... - PSP Association
PSP and aggression
41 Replies
•
Hi Leslie
I think that it comes with the illness archie doesn't have the aggression but I hope that you get your answer with somebody who has got experience as you always get a reply from this wonderful site
Hope things settle for you
Sue x
• in reply toSuebatt
Thank you Sue. After posting this several old posts were highlighted and have been extremely helpful, as you say such a wonderful site to get the help we need.
All best wishes to you and Archie, Lesley x
I found this, which is probably more than you want to know! And the answer is yes. futuremedicine.com/doi/pdf/...
• in reply toChristine47
Christine, thank you, all help gratefully received however difficult to take. Xxxxx
Lots of good information in that article. Interesting about the various effects of medications.
Chris has never been angry or aggressive but the neurologist always asks so I know it can come with PSP
Jean x
• in reply todoglington
Jean, thank you x
Jack maintains a level head all the time. We try to keep our activity level low and give plenty of time to recover from a big day out . He is lucky to be on a minimum of medications he tolerates well enough. I am lucky!!!LOL Hope it's one of those things thats just goes away - something I learned here - things can just stop one day for no reason.
• in reply toaliciamq
I hope it just goes away too, strange how some symptoms go as quickly as they arrived, thank you for your reply.
Over the last six weeks my husband has become aggressive, hostile, demanding and more. His doc is looking at several things. 1) PSP can affect frontal lobe functions which includes aggression, etc. 2) frontal lobe dementia can go hand in hand with PSP 3) He has been taking seizure medicine that has these side effects so we're weaning him off and adding a different seizure med 4) in May the doc prescribed Trazadone for him, and side effects of Trazadone can include aggression, anger, hostility, and more, so he's now off Trazadone and now taking Prozac. Poor guy - poor me! - has had a quadruple whammy. I've seen an improvement in the last 48 hours so hopeful we're on the right track. Caring for him is tough enough without also becoming his enemy.
Hugs - Chris
I hope it works and he can be himself again.
Love , Jean x
Thanks, Jean.
• in reply toFlemingc
Dear Chris, thank you so much for your reply and so sorry to hear what you have been through recently, do hope you are now on the right track. Yes, I am the enemy too! Hugs to you too, Lesley x
Hi Lesley, I've seen posts on this form in the past. If you type aggression in the Search icon it will bring them up. Thankfully my husband isn't aggressive but boy can he be demanding. At times I just wonder is he being lazy or is it PSP especially when he asks for something is his glasses which are on his table beside him! Thoughts are with you. Nanny857xx
My husband was aggressive at the beginning, it was really bad, before he was diagnosed, it was horrible, for the last few years there has been no aggression xxxxx
John was like that too at the beginning. We still get the odd flash of it. I ignore it now but it was hard to cope with. X
• in reply toVronB
Thank you Xxxxx
• in reply toYvonneandgeorge
Thank you for your reply, knowing its part if this desease does help to cope, delighted to hear it stopped for you. Xxxx
• in reply toNanny857
Thank you I will do that. You've hit the nail on the head with 'lazy' too, Brian just gives me a big grin when I ask what his last slave died of! My thoughts are with you too. x
easterncedar• in reply to
Hah. I could have used that remark myself!
My guy dose give me looks like he wants me dead sometimes and that for having something different on my plate of food he think he should have and the death grip on my hands occasionally .i know he dose not really mean to do harm. yet again another gift from PSP.
Dee in BC
• in reply to
Dee, thank you for your reply. Death grip describes it perfectly! Lesley x
easterncedar• in reply to
Oh yes, that crushing grip. It was involuntary on his part, like the freezing in position, but it would make me frantic. Really frantic. I thought my hands would never recover, but they are. I wish I had been more understanding. I'm sure he hated hurting me.
Cuttercat• in reply to
Oh my gosh, Dee, Charles does the death grip on my hands!!!! It's the only thing he does but it happens. I try different tactics to tell him to let go. All of them don't work but he eventually does.
I'm so grateful you mentioned this, I truly thought it was just me.
Cuttercat
First I've heard of the death grip - hand - when does that happen?? How? Yikes!
• in reply toaliciamq
Its very difficult to avoid as it usually happens when trying to help move him by holding his hands (I now try and hold his wrists) or when he tries to grab me to help get himself up. It is just like the freezing position!
Hi
My husband presented with what is called The behavioral variant of PSP.
This caused a complete change in his personality, including aggression and violent outbursts.
He was prescribed Lamotrigine to temper this.
I would advise that you discuss this drug with your GP and Neurologist
Please note that Lamotrigine is not a sedative, so will not affect balance etc.
G is now into his 4th year of PSP and is no longer aggressive, but still taking Lamotrigine 75mg twice daily.
I quickly learned to introduce humour when possible or leave the room and him when he was displaying this aggression.
Move any objects that might cause harm or be thrown. The remote control whizzing across the room or at me was always a hazard!!!
It is so difficult to come to terms with and this was one part of this disease that I found the hardest to deal with, because G was never violent or aggressive, in fact the complete opposite.
I hope this helps
Pam x
• in reply toD0ttieL0ttie
Dear Pam, thank you so much for your reply and all the information, it is indeed extremely helpful and much appreciated. Lesley x
Oh my, Pam. That's so awful. I admire your perseverance and courage in the face of such a change in your husband. That, I don't think I could have done. I was lucky. Hugs, ec
All I can add is my Dad had the aggression too but it was a PHASE of the wicked psp. So if the med is for that alone, you might want to notice when or if the aggression stage abates on it's own to take him off the med. As someone else noted, Daddy's aggression happened in the earlier years of psp and it was before he was diagnosed. I think his wife and her family thought he was just getting old and MEAN and sometimes it seemed to me that they didn't really care about his devastating deterioration and I felt like it was because at that time and for a long period of time, they'd yet to realize he couldn't help it.
I remember once I heard her family member MOCKING my dad when daddy was calling for his wife, calling her name over and over, in his psp voice, unable to move from the bed, and her family member mocked how he called her name and laughed. Isn't that COLD!? But I think her family had started to dislike him somewhat because of the aggression towards his wife who was their daughter and sister, and it took time for them to learn the psp effect.
I could be in jail right now for when I heard him mock my dad and laugh and loud enough my dad could have heard him. I was in the next room so he never knew I heard. I became very defensive of my dad. I was his protector the way he was once mine. Now he's gone and i miss him terribly. Sorry to have digressed!!
• in reply toGonnaMissDaddy
Thank you for your message, you digress all you want if it helps and I am so sorry to hear your sad news. x
Charles does this as well. As soon as it gets dusk he starts up.
After he goes to bed at 6 pm he's ok, but it sometimes flares up during the day as well. It comes and goes. I think it's part of the disease and frustration.
Cuttercat
• in reply toCuttercat
I am sure frustration is a huge part of this, Brian is finding it extremely difficult to come to terms with the desease. Lesley
Aggression was the first symptom my husband showed of the PSP. His personality changed so much and we had two years after his diagnosis when he became very physically aggressive which was so difficult to manage. I have learnt to walk away now when he is spoiling for a fight and as he is less mobile I have fewer bruises!!! He still gets immensely frustrated, aggressive is incredibly impulsive but once in a while there is a glimmer of the lovely man I married. I cope with the incontinence, choking, falls, deteriorating mobility but the hardest thing in the world are the psychological changes. We have found the right antidepressants and counselling have helped a little. He refused anti psychotic drugs suggested by the psychiatrist so we just live with it. You have my sympathies it is a vile disease that changes good people into ' demons' at times.
Take care of yourself
• in reply toTippyleaf
Thank you so much for your reply, it is a mirror of what is happening here! You take care too, my very best wishes, Lesley x
Good morning Lesley, the dreaded disease symptoms that just show up, I understand the personality effects are part of PSP, have always wondered what was there pesonalatily prior to PSP? Thankfully my brother is so calm and not demanding, and yes the death grip he does have can't pry his hands away once he hangs on he is into it going on 7 years now going down hill. Praying for no new symptoms. Nettie
• in reply toTttp
Good morning Nettie, thank you for your reply and I am so sorry to hear about your brother.
Brian was never aggressive and wouldn't hurt a hair on my head, an extremely outgoing type of person, this desease has a lot to answer for! All best wishes to you, Lesley
I would say a complete personality change, from a loving kind, funny, generous albeit spontaneous man to a shadow of his former self.
It seems some people become more passive and others more aggressive I guess Lesley we drew the short straw
Xxxx
• in reply toTippyleaf
I guess we did, hang on in there! Xxxxxx
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