Hi Renoron! My Mom has not been officially diagnosed with this, but her neurologist said it is likely cause of her mobility issues. My Mom’s legs are strong - she can stand on her own and she can do a mean tap dance while sitting down! But she has the “magnetic” gait that is common with this and she has a hard time initiating walking. We walk together everywhere, with me supporting her from the front and pause frequently. I find that if I need her to walk to a specific place, it helps to have a specific marker to tell her where to put her feet - for example, I have a small circular orange bath mat in front of the toilet. So when we go in the bathroom, I let her know that is where we are headed. I am thankful that this does mean she doesn’t wander, but I am sorry to see her lose the ability to have agency for where she goes. Are there any questions I can answer for you? Sending hugs and support!❤️

Good luck! I hope you are able to find a solution that works for you! Sending hugs and support!❤️

In the reading I have done, it is not super common in Alzheimer’s patients, especially not until later stages, but it is common enough that if you Google “gait apraxia and Alzheimer’s” there are articles from the US National Institute of Health. It is one of those diagnoses that is done more by the elimination of other issues. Our neurologist had my mother have an MRI a little over a year ago after recognizing that her physical condition was declining much faster than her cognitive condition (although that is declining, just slowly). There were no significant changes from the one that was done during the diagnostic process in 2014 - he said that he was looking for hydrocephalus, signs of Parkinson’s or a more refined dementia diagnosis/ signs of vascular dementia. But none of that was there. If there is hydrocephalus there has been positive outcomes from inserting shunts and having lumbar fluid drainage, but even if it was there, I wouldn’t put my Mom through that. Good luck with the physical therapy!❤️

I've read about hydrocephalus also but her doc has ruled that out. She has flatly refused to participate in the last two PT sessions. They don't appear to be helping anyway. I'm going to discuss Ripinirole with our neurologist at our next appointment. It's prescribed for PD and that is a neurological disease so why wouldn't it work for dementia apraxia?

Thanx RebeekaJ, I noticed the same with my wife; if she has a marker she can usually step to it. I asked our neurologist about Robinirole but he says it's only prescribed for PD. They're bot neurological diseases. Don't understand that and he had no answer. She has physical therapy once a week and it helps her strength but does nothing for improving her gait initiation. The PT is familiar with the problem from a PD standpoint.