Hi JJ,

I have written about this before, but the illness had a definite pattern
where need for medications were concerned, at least in reference to my
mother in law it did.    Her need for medication got stronger and stronger,
then began to wane again.   In fact the nursing home took her off ALL meds
to establish a new baseline once she was admitted.   When she started out
the only thing that she was on, was a 5 mg Aricept and a 50mg Zoloft.   At
the peak of her illness she was on higher doses of Zoloft, Risperdol, and
Aricept together, and also getting a Tylenol PM at bedtime.

At a certain point she began to seem more sleepy, less restless, and to show
difficulty keeping her balance, so the doctor recommended lowering the
dosages.   At the time she went into the nursing home she was down to one
Risperdol per day, and a lower dose of Zoloft too, and continuing with the
Aricept, (which we had discovered really helped her a lot.   Some report it
doesn't help for everyone, but for her it did a lot).

It seems to have been others experience as well, that the need for
medications to control delusions and such first increases, then diminishes
as the illness progresses towards later stages.  There is good reasoning
behind decreasing medications, because some of them do affect balance and
continence, so if the person can manage with less, it is a good thing.