Conditions: Alzheimer's Disease
Keywords: Memantine Neuroimaging MRI Brain atrophy
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 277
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
Pre-clinical studies have demonstrated that memantine can decrease the neuronal toxicity associated with excessive glutamate release and calcium overload in neurons. Previous studies have shown that memantine helps to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). In AD, the rate of brain tissue loss, or atrophy, is faster than in normal aging and this seems to go hand in hand with some of the symptoms of the disease. This suggests that memantine treatment in AD could provide both symptomatic improvement and neuro-protective effects. The purpose of this study was to show whether memantine, in addition to providing symptomatic benefits, can slow the rate of brain atrophy as assessed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology.

Detailed description:
The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of memantine on the rate of brain atrophy compared to placebo in patients with AD (moderate severity) over a 1-year period. This was a multinational, randomised, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled, fixed-dose study (20 mg memantine). The study also included secondary imaging, cognitive and behavioural measures.

Arms:
arm 1: None arm 2: None

Interventions: intervention 1: Memantine intervention 2: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 10 mg tablets twice daily intervention 2: Tablets twice daily

Protocol document: