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.