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As patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) become increasingly impaired, treating their behavioral problems, such as agitation, becomes paramount. To examine the behavioral effects of memantine, Cummings and colleagues reassessed previously reported neuropsychiatric data from a randomized trial comparing memantine with placebo in 404 patients with moderate-to-severe AD (Journal Watch Neurology May 7 2004). All participants were already taking donepezil.
Compared with the placebo group, the memantine group’s mean total score on the neuropsychiatric inventory at 24-week follow-up clearly improved, by about 4 points (a 25% difference). Three of the 12 neuropsychiatric subscales (agitation/aggression, irritability/lability, and appetite/eating chan…