Conditions: Pathological Gambling
Keywords: Pathological Gambling Compulsive Gambling Gambling Addiction Gambling Treatment Memantine Pharmacology
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 29
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The goal of the proposed study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the drug memantine in individuals with pathological gambling (PG). Thirty subjects with DSM-IV PG will receive 10 weeks of open-label treatment with memantine. The hypothesis to be tested is that memantine will be effective and well tolerated in patients with PG. We hypothesize that memantine will reduce the severity of gambling symptoms and improve patients' overall functioning. This study will provide needed data on the treatment of a disabling disorder that currently lacks a clearly effective treatment.

Detailed description:

Arms:
arm 1: 10 to 30 mg/day memantine. The study consisted of 10 weeks of open-label memantine. All eligible study subjects were started at 10 mg/day for 2 weeks. The dose was increased to 20 mg/day after 2 weeks and then to 30 mg/day after 4 weeks unless remission of PG symptoms was attained at a lower dose.

Interventions: intervention 1: Memantine Hydrochloride
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 10 mg/day for two weeks, dose increase to 20 mg at week 3, 30 mg at week 4 unless clinical improvement is achieved with a lower dose. Total treatment is 10 weeks.

Protocol document: