What medications and/or treatments have good efficacy for dementia-related paranoia? my mother has severe paranoia that is affecting her quality of life, but i'm very concerned that getting her treated won't help and will only badly traumatize her?

There are no good studies of medical treatments for this. I would goto uptodate.com and read more then discuss with her team. If you are providing her care check with local visiting nurses association to see what is available.

There are some pharmaceutical agents available that can handle agitation, aggression, delusions, and hallucinations. A plan to deal with this can be devised by either a neurologist or psychiatrist. Nothing is perfect or totally successful here, but palliation may be achieved to some extent.