Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Memantine in the Treatment of Alzheimer disease.

Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of akatinol memantine in the treatment of Alzheimer disease(AD).Methods 36 patients with AD were randomly assigned to receive 10 mg of donepezil daily or 20 mg of memantine daily for 16 weeks.The primary efficacy were evaluated by using the Mini-Mental Status Examination(MMSE),the Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale-cognition(ADAS-cog)and the Activities of Daily Living(ADL).The secondary efficacy were evaluated by using the Clinical Global Impression(CGI),the Rapid Verbal Retrieve(RVR)and the Digit Span(DS).Results 32 patients(50% women;mean age,66 years)completed the study and were evaluated.Memantine had similar efficacies to donepezil in improving symptoms of Alzheimer disease as evidenced by the increase in scores of MMSE,RVR as well as DS and the decrease in scores of ADL(P0.05).Conclusions Our current data showed that memantine as a new drug for AD,had the similar efficaces as donepezil.