Memantine: A New Approach to Treatment of Moderate to Severe Alzheimer Disease

Memantine may be effective for certain people with AD, but better treatments are still needed.

The FDA recently approved memantine, an uncompetitive N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, for treatment of symptoms of moderate to severe Alzheimer disease (AD). One of the pivotal studies was this double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, manufacturer-sponsored trial of memantine in 404 community-dwelling patients with a diagnosis of probable AD; these patients had received stable doses of donepezil for an average of more than 2.5 years.

The memantine group performed significantly better than the placebo group on all three outcome measures: the Severe Impairment Battery, a cognitive dysfunction test; the ADCS-ADL inventory of activities of daily living, developed to assess patients with relatively severe dementia; and the CIBIC-Pl…

Reviewing Author

Peter J. Whitehouse, MD, PhD