Dr Liz Blog
Aging at Home
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed for a Forbes Health article about "aging in place," something that deserves more attention than it usually gets. The writers included a lot of great statistics,…
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Tapering Off Sedatives
Some recent studies show that nearly one out of eight adults in the US is prescribed a sedative (benzodiazepine). These are medications like Valium (Diazepam), Ativan (Lorazepam), Xanax (Alprazolam) and Klonopin (Clonazepam). All of…
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Holidays & Aging
Our family has gotten together every other year for over twenty years — until COVID. Luckily, there was a recent wedding that brought us all together; I hadn’t seen some of my older…
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Politicians & Dementia?
When it comes to mudslinging politicians, there’s been a lot of recent talk about who has dementia and who’s too old to be in office. Aside from the usual politicking, our current crop of…
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What If The Most Common Medication For Agitation Actually Makes It Worse?
Anyone who cares for someone with dementia knows that agitation is often part of the package. Nearly 20 percent of those with faltering cognition experience behavioral symptoms (anxiety, agitation, delusions, paranoia) severe enough to…
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Divorce Later in Life
Divorce is never easy. As a geriatrician, I obviously can’t discuss every single factor that leads to it later in life. What I can discuss, however, are the issues that I’ve personally seen in…
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What Ails You? It Might be the Meds
Anyone who's become suddenly drowsy from too much cold medicine knows that medications sometimes have unwanted effects. About 6 percent of hospital admissions can be traced to what we doctors call "adverse drug events"…
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Help! My elder is on an antidepressant and now can’t get off it.
Recently, I corresponded with a woman who told me this story: “My husband was given Paxil and Nexium for stomach and stress problems about 15 years ago. The Paxil affected his libido and he…
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Capacity is Critical
If you follow the news, and you've been following the most recent charges former President Trump now faces, you've likely heard that one of his unindicted co-conspirators is Rudy Giuliani. A former district attorney,…
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