The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7383 p35
14 January 2006

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News summary

Memantine effective in Alzheimer's disease over long term

Memantine is safe and effective in the long term, according to an open-label 24-week extension of a 28-week, randomised, double-blind trial in patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease.

Patients taking placebo in the initial trial were switched to memantine for the 24-week extension, and the authors saw significant benefit for these patients relative to the rate of decline experienced while on placebo (using the same efficacy measures). Patients switched to active treatment did not completely catch up with the patients who continued taking memantine throughout the whole trial.

The study is published in the Archives of Neurology (2006;63:49).