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A 6‐month, open‐label study of memantine in patients with frontotemporal dementia
Author(s) -
DiehlSchmid Janine,
Förstl Hans,
Perneczky Robert,
Pohl Corina,
Kurz Alexander
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.1973
Subject(s) - memantine , frontotemporal dementia , dementia , psychology , randomized controlled trial , cognition , medicine , psychiatry , disease
Objective To evaluate safety and effects on cognition and behavior of memantine 20 mg/day in the treatment of patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Methods This was a single‐center, 6‐month, open, uncontrolled study. Sixteen outpatients with a diagnosis of FTD were enrolled. Results On the CIBIC plus 26 weeks after baseline four of the 16 patients were minimally improved, four were unchanged, seven were minimally worse and one patient was moderately worse. Neither the Neuropsychiatric Inventory nor the Frontal Behavioral Inventory demonstrated statistically significant differences in behavior between baseline and final visit. There was an increase in the total Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale score, reflecting a decline in cognitive performance. Executive functions as well as activities of daily living and extrapyramidal motor symptoms (EPMS) remained unchanged during the trial. Conclusion The number of patients was small, so that the evidence given by statistical tests is limited. Thus, the present study can only show trends regarding drug effects. As memantine is well‐tolerated, further randomized and controlled studies should be conducted to evaluate drug efficacy. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.