How to deal with major depressive disorder?

Question

Hello doctor,

My grandmother is 80 years old. I am looking for advice on depression and major depressive disorder for my grandmother. Her mental health has not been so good lately, and she is scared about death and has dreams daily about that. She feels someone is chasing her and shouts at night. She takes Restyl 0.5 mg. I think she needs help with psychiatry, but I do not know where to start. Any tips or advice would be great.

Kindly help.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I understand your concern.

Thank you for taking help from a psychiatrist. I can understand your problem and concern about your grandmother. She does not have depression, but she is developing dementia with psychosis. She may have forgetfulness and prosecutor delusion. She may have visual and auditory hallucinations. She is on a tablet Risperidone 0.5 mg, which can help her to deal with her psychotic symptoms, but if she still has those symptoms, then she needs to increase the dose.

Please do the following investigation for further management. Investigations to be done:

CBC (complete blood count).
RBS (random blood sugar).
Thyroid profile.
Vitamin D3 and vitamin B12.
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) brain plain.
BP (blood pressure) monitoring.
RFT (renal function test) with serum electrolytes.

I hope this helps.

Kindly follow up if you have more concerns.

Thank you.