My coworker has an elderly live-in MIL who seems to be going through some congnitive issues - lately it's been pervasive deja vu (deja vecu), which I had read about before, and misremembering ("we were here last week, the three of us" when they weren't), which I've experienced with my own elders. But my coworker's MIL has been having another cognitive symptom I've never seen before - name a person and she'll tell you that person is dead. Seriously - people in the news (including Kennedy and all the presidential candidates) elicited her response "Oh, they're all dead." Family members - "Cousin Trudy died years ago, I remember it well, right after she took that cruise" when Trudy's alive and well. Kobe Bryant made a three-point shot on TV while they were watchnig and she says "You know Kobe died a while back." Anyone else experience or know anything about this type of thinking? Not a misremembering but a conviction that other people are dead, despite evidence to the contrary? I've only found citations of mental illness where the patient thinks he himself is dead, not other people.

I am sorry I do not, but I wish your co-worker well. That's a difficult situation to be in.

Okay, that is really weird. Of course, thinking that you are dead yourself is pretty high up there, too. Never heard of either.

Sounds like time for an evaluation to me -- particularly to check for treatable problems.

Dr. MNM would probably have much more to say on the subject.

Oh yes, they have an eval scheduled and think that perhaps she isn't taking her medications (for physical/diabetes issues) the way she should, which could most definitely be a cause. I'm just fascinated by the "everyone's dead" symptomology, it's the first I've heard of it and it's almost like reading an Oliver Sacks book, trying to figure out where it's coming from.

Uncontrolled diabetes can definitely cause confusion. I get really sleepy when my blood sugar is out of control - and that only lasts a short time. Minor strokes are also a possibility with uncontrolled diabetes (triglycerides tend to skyrocket). BP may also be out of control which increases the probability of small infarcts.

Yup. They're working on finding the cause. I am just really intrigued by this specific type of confusion - instead of generalized confusion, it's a specific, persistent type of thought, focused on people having died, and I find it fascinating. I guess I'm not interested in the main basis of it as much as whether it's affected by a person's psychology or interference with a specific section of the brain or what have you.

Does wishing people were dead count? My husband does that and it works.

mtomm Wrote:Does wishing people were dead count? My husband does that and it works.

OK, I don't know if I should :laugh: or

There was a period of time where I would bring up someone's name & ask my hubby if this person died or if they were still living (mostly celebrities) and within the month we would hear of their passing.

I stopped asking about people when that was happening. It was kind of like I felt something, was asking about their wellbeing and they would die shortly after that. Creeped me out.

MJ, I worked in a nursing home for a while to pay for college, and one of my favourite patients was exactly like that! He was in the Alzheimer's ward, and one of the really odd things about him was that he insisted that celebs, family and friends were all dead. We'd tell him that his son would be coming in, and the man would reply that that was nonsense, his son was dead. He would cry, we couldn't convince him otherwise, and his son visited every day. Every day, he'd be sure his son was dead- and only minutes after a visit, would be insisting that the son was dead. Same with people on TV , his favourite nurses, you name it. None of the other Alzheimer's patients did that, so this gentleman really stood out.

Hello,

Dementia is always a slow onset disorder. Delerium on the other hand is rapid onset. It is an organic mental disorder that requires immediate medical attention. Underlying causes can be congestive heart failure, liver failure, urinary tract infection...all things that need to be treated in a timely manner. Delerium can also be the result of drug or alcohol abuse.

Your father-in-law needs to be seen ASAP by a medical doctor in order to be evaluated and treated.

It's not a common dementia symptom but I have heard of it before. Very low doses of an antipsychotic might help.

Dr. MNM

The woman died last year. Once her blood sugar was stabilized, all I See Dead People stuff went away.