Quality of Life and the Effect of Memantine in Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinson’s Disease Dementia

AIM: To investigate quality of life (QOL) and the effect of memantine treatment in patients with Lewy body dementias. METHODS: A secondary analysis of a randomized controlled study in 70 patients with Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) or dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) over 24 weeks using caregiver-rated QOL-Alzheimer's disease (AD) in domains according to the WHO's classification of health. RESULTS: Baseline QOL shows lower ratings for body functions over environmental factors in DLB/PDD. Treatment with memantine significantly improves life as a whole compared to placebo and improves total QOL, body function and structure. CONCLUSION: This study shows that memantine improves QOL in Lewy body dementias. We also demonstrate important QOL patterns which can be used in clinical practice.