Question: For people with Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia or Lewy Body dementia, how effective is Memantine compared with other medication, treatment as usual or no treatment, in reducing problematic behaviour?

Answer:

Plain language summary

There is no high quality research evidence to suggest that Memantine is any more effective than any other treatment or intervention in reducing problematic behaviour in people with Alzheimer's disease or Dementia.

Clinical and research implications

Evidence from one moderate quality randomised trial showed that memantine with donepezil significantly improved behaviour after 24 weeks of treatment. However, three trials found no evidence that memantine monotherapy was more effective than placebo in behavioural or cognitive outcomes. This finding is consistent with the NICE guideline recommendation which did not find a statistically significant benefit for memantine on behavioural outcomes measured by the NPI and BGP. It is also consistent with the Scottish Medicines Consortium guidance which stated that there was insufficient evidence to recommend the use of memantine in people with dementia.

More randomised, placebo-controlled trials of patients with Alzheimer's disease in outpatient settings which measure behaviour are needed.

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For related NICE and SIGN guidelines, follow the links below.