A 6-month, open-label study of memantine in patients with frontotemporal dementia

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.