Neurology Medical News about Memantine;Parkinson's disease dementia;dementia with Lewy bodies

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Memantine in patients with Parkinson's disease dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies: A double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre trial
The Lancet Neurology, 06/17/09

Aarsland D et al. – Pts with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) or Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) may benefit from treatment with the N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist memantine, pending confirmation of preliminary findings by large-scale studies. Treatment with memantine was well tolerated.

Methods

Study of safety and efficacy of memantine in pts with PDD or DLB
Parallel-group, 24-week, randomized controlled study of memantine (20 mg/day) vs placebo at 4 psychiatric and neurologic outpatient clinics in Norway, Sweden, and the UK during 2005-2008
Subjects fulfilled UK Parkinson's Disease Society Brain Bank clinical diagnostic criteria for PD and developed dementia (PDD) by DSM IV criteria ≥1 yr after onset of motor symptoms or met revised consensus operationalized criteria for DLB
Physicians masked to pt treatment allocation
Primary outcome measure: clinical global impression of change (CGIC), ranging from 1-7 points; low score = better outcome

Results

Treatment for 72 pts with PDD or DLB: 34 with memantine and 38 with placebo
Study completion by 56 (78%)
All withdrawals due to adverse events; similar proportion of withdrawals for both groups
At wk 24, memantine pts had better CGIC scores vs placebo pts
Except improved speed on attentional tasks in memantine pts, no significant differences between groups in secondary outcome measures

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