title: Memantine improves attention and episodic memory in Parkinson's disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In both dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD), attentional dysfunction is a core clinical feature together with disrupted episodic memory. This study evaluated the cognitive effects of memantine in DLB and PDD using automated tests of attention and episodic memory.
  
  
  METHODS
  A randomised double-blind, placebo-controlled, 24-week three centre trial of memantine (20 mg/day) was conducted in which tests of attention (simple and choice reaction time) and word recognition (immediate and delayed) from the CDR System were administered prior to dosing and again at 12 and 24 weeks. Although other results from this study have been published, the data from the CDR System tests were not included and are presented here for the first time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data were available for 51 patients (21 DLB and 30 PDD). In both populations, memantine produced statistically significant medium to large effect sized improvements to choice reaction time, immediate and delayed word recognition.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These are the first substantial improvements on cognitive tests of attention and episodic recognition memory identified with memantine in either DLB or PDD.
authors.affiliation: Wesnes Cognition Ltd, Streatley on Thames, UK; Department of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK; Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Keith A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Wesnes
authors.forename: Dag
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Aarsland
authors.forename: Clive
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ballard
authors.forename: Elisabet
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Londos
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000978:Antiparkinson Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects*; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020961:Lewy Body Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008559:Memantine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D011930:Reaction Time
chemical_list: D000978:Antiparkinson Agents; D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists; D008559:Memantine
keywords: CDR System; Parkinson's disease dementia; attention; automated cognitive tests; dementia with Lewy bodies; episodic memory; memantine