OBJECTIVE Most investigations of pharmacotherapy for treating Alzheimer's disease focus on patients with mild-to-moderate symptoms, with little evidence to guide clinical decisions when symptoms become severe. We examined whether continuing donepezil, or commencing memantine, is cost-effective for community-dwelling, moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease patients. METHODS Cost-effectiveness ...

Low-dose memantine might have anti-inflammatory and neurotrophic effects mechanistically remote from an NMDA receptor. We investigated whether add-on memantine reduced cytokine levels and benefitted patients with opioid dependence undergoing methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) in a randomized, double-blind, controlled 12-week study. Patients were randomly assigned to a group: Memantine (5 mg/da...

There is preclinical support for using NMDA receptor glutamatergic antagonists to aid in naltrexone-based treatment of opioid dependence. We hypothesized that adding memantine will improve efficacy of extended-release (XR) naltrexone to prevent relapse. In this double blind study opioid-dependent participants (N=82) underwent inpatient detoxification and naltrexone induction. During naltrexone ...

Hippocampal learning is thought to induce metaplasticity, which can facilitate subsequent learning. Administered at single low doses, the N-methyl-d-aspartate-type glutamate receptor antagonist memantine predominantly blocks α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (α7 nAChRs). Placebo-controlled administration of a single low dose of memantine in a pharmaco-fMRI experiment may thus help characteri...

BACKGROUND Given that memantine is thought to decrease N-methyl-D-aspartic-acid-related (NMDA) glutamatergic hyperactivity and improve locomotion in rats, we sought to assess the drug's impact on axial symptoms in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS We performed a 90-day, randomised, double-blind, study with two parallel arms: 20 mg/day memantine versus placebo (ClinicalTrials.gov:NCT0...

A pharmacokinetic study of intravenously and orally administered memantine was run on 12 pigs. The blood samples were collected up to 12 hours after drug administration. The memantine plasma levels were determined using a validated method of liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry detection. Six pharmacokinetic models were screened and the best one describing the absorption and dis...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for 25 million cases worldwide. Until recently, the pharmacotherapy of AD was limited to the use of cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) that are approved only for the mild to moderate stages of the illness. Memantine, an NMDA receptor antagonist has been found to be effective, both as monotherapy and in combination with don...

BACKGROUND It is a well-known fact that 5HT6 ligands increase glutamate levels. In the current study we investigated whether a 5HT6 antagonist, SB399885 would show antidepressant like property at a dose which would significantly increase the glutamate levels. Further we studied if the combination of a 5HT6 antagonist and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist, memantine would restore the antide...

BACKGROUND Previous cost-effectiveness studies of cholinesterase inhibitors have modeled Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression and treatment effects through single or global severity measures, or progression to "Full Time Care". This analysis evaluates the cost-effectiveness of donepezil versus memantine or no treatment in Germany by considering correlated changes in cognition, behavior and func...

PURPOSE To determine, using electrophysiological measures of visual system function, whether oral daily dosing of memantine is both safe and effective to reduce the injury associated with experimental glaucoma in primates. METHODS Argon laser treatment of the anterior chamber angle was used to induce chronic ocular hypertension (COHT) in the right eye of 18 macaque monkeys. Nine animals were ...