[Clinical rehabilitative effect of memantine on cognitive and motor disorders in patients with Parkinson's disease].

Author(s): Li W, Zhao JH, Sun SG, Zhang JW, Suo AQ, Ma MM

Affiliation(s): Department of Neurology, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou 450003, China. liwei71@126.com

Publication date & source: 2011-02-01, Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi., 91(5):301-3.

Publication type: English Abstract; Randomized Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVE: To study the effects of memantine on cognitive and motor impairment in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: A total of 55 PD patients complicated by varying degrees of cognitive impairment were randomly divided into two groups. The patients of experimental group (n = 28) received memantine (20 mg/d) while those in the control group (n = 27) conventional antiparkinsonian drug therapy alone. The cognitive and motor evaluations were assessed at pre-treatment and 12, 24 weeks post-treatment by clinical assessment, rating scales and neuropsychological tests. RESULTS: At week 24 the patients in the memantine group had better MMSE (22.8 +/- 1.8), ADAS-cog (18.6 +/- 2.3), and UPDRS-III (34.6 +/- 4.2) scales scores than those taking placebo MMSE (18.5 +/- 1.7), ADAS-cog (21.9 +/- 2.4), and UPDRS-III (41.2 +/- 4.0). Patients treated with memantine had better improvement on the MMSE (P < 0.05), ADAS-cog (P < 0.05), and UPDRS-III (P < 0.05) scales compared with the control group by the end of study week 24. CONCLUSION: Memantine may improve the cognitive and motor impairments of PD. And it is both safe and well-tolerated.