Morphine and Extreme Mood Swings?

[gaylejones]

Hello my mom has been on hospice for about 3 weeks and started taking a very low dosage of morphine to help her sleep at night. She has been acting very strange some days with extreme, extreme mood swings. She says very strange things and gets extremely angry about doing things or what needs to be done around the house.

I am thinking that it is the morphine or lack there of on the nights that she doesn't take it that is making her act out. Does anyone have experiences with such extreme anger and strange reactions.

This is very hard for me to understand because I feel that I am almost loosing touch with her and can not seem to stop her rant.

[Connie22]

My mom went through the same thing-They said it was too strong of a drug for her. They switched her to a milder pain medication, which didn't take the pain away and then put her back on a lower dosage of morphine-which helped tremendously. Good luck.

[nikkala]

My Gram had some reactions to the morphine. It is a really strong med and can cause hallucinations and alter mood. You should definitely talk to the hospice folks. Sometimes the disease itself can make people behave angry. I am so sorry you have to go through this. We are here for you.

[Frank Lamb]

There are many drugs that cause hallucinations.Mabe the meds need adjusted or changed.

Hope they can get this managed for you,what your going thru is hard enough to deal with.

[amyrig35]

My MIL is also in Hospice. They found that morphine wasn't strong enough for her so she is on something else. But whatever it is, when she isn't on it she is also angry and confused. When she takes the medicine, she is calm, rational and understands what is happening. She becomes a different person when the drugs start to wear off. She doen't remember what is happening, she forgets that she is in the hospital, she asks us to call the police to "break me out of here". Unfortunately in that state she often refuses the medication so her anger is prolonged until someone can convince her to take it. I don't understand how any of this works, but your Mom's reactions sound like what we have been seeing with my MIL. I am so sorry.

[gaylejones]

Hi

Its been about a week from the time I posted the question about mood swings and cancer. I talked with hospice after I posted the question and found out that is most likely anger or depression linked to her late stage with the cancer. The nurse told me that often lung cancer patients will push loved ones away or become angry because even if it is on a subconscious level they can sense there bodies are shutting down. They also said it might be that the cancer has spread to different areas of the body like the brain. The nurse had confirmed that the her lung was almost silent and was almost filled completely with liquid. So she is most likely one more stage closer to death.

This week she is doing much better but is still fixated on cleaning and fixing things in the house. I have seemed to figure a way out to work with her on these little tasks but It just seems like such a bad way to spend the last weeks or months of your life.

[Linda661]

Your hospice nurse may be correct. My mom only had morphine briefly in the hospital just before she went to hospice care, but she exhibited really severe mood changes involving anger that were rather hard for me to take in her last stages, both before and after the brief morphine use. In our case, it was general shut down and probable brain mets.

I'm sorry you're going through this. Just try, try to not take it personal and know that it's the disease .... try to cherish every moment with her, no matter what she presents. I ended up getting counseling from social workers on how to deal with the situation (hospice has them available to you) -- they know techniques for de-escalating the tension in the situation that might help.

Linda