Memantine for Treatment of Dementia

The N-methyl-D-Aspartate receptor antagonist memantine with its less popular monoamine reuptake-inhibiting properties provides beneficial effects in patients with advanced Alzheimer’s disease on an acetylcholine esterase inhibitor treatment regimen. Memantine counteracts deficits of monoamine neurotransmission with associated common clinical symptoms, such as depression, in Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore, it is obvious that memantine improved neuropsychological and behavioral deficits in clinical dementia trials particularly in combination with acetylcholine esterase inhibitors. Patients with other forms of dementia did not respond to oral daily 20 mg memantine dosing. Memantine does not slow the course of dementia or provide cure from dementia from the clinical perspective. This is in contrast to findings from preclinical studies, which suggest that memantine has a positive impact on improving Alzheimer’s disease brain neuropathology, as well as in preventing ß-amyloid generation, its enrichment with further downstream neurotoxic consequences through the extrasynaptic N-methyl-D-Aspartate receptor blockade. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.