title: Improvement of a woman's alcohol-related dementia via off-label memantine treatment: a 16-month clinical observation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To report a case of long-term treatment of moderate alcohol-related dementia (ARD) with memantine.
  
  
  METHODS
  We present the case of a 48-year-old German woman with a long history of alcohol dependence and cognitive impairments, who was diagnosed with moderate ARD (according to ICD-10 criteria) after having ruled out other dementias. Her cognitive functioning improved with off-label use of memantine (up to 20 mg/d) under abstinent conditions. Discontinuation and reinstitution of memantine were associated with a worsening and an improving of her cognitive performance, respectively, which was documented in neuropsychiatric tests. The patient had 2 alcohol relapses during this study. Only the first relapse was associated with discontinuation of memantine and cognitive deterioration. The second relapse happened during receiving of memantine and was not associated with a decline in cognitive functioning. After 16 months of treatment, moderate ARD had been improved to the grade of an amnestic mild cognitive impairment (according to DemTect) and to mild dementia (according to Clinical Dementia Rating Scale), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The on-off-on pattern of the memantine treatment supports the assumption that this antidementia agent played a key role in the improvement of ARD. An alcohol relapse did not attenuate the improvement of cognition with memantine.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The use of memantine improved cognitive functioning of a female patient with ARD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics of Evangelisches Krankenhaus Castrop-Rauxel, Castrop-Rauxel, Germany University of Duisburg, Essen, Germany udo.bonnet@uni-due.de.
authors.forename: Udo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bonnet
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics of Evangelisches Krankenhaus Castrop-Rauxel, Castrop-Rauxel, Germany.
authors.forename: Behnaz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Taazimi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics of Evangelisches Krankenhaus Castrop-Rauxel, Castrop-Rauxel, Germany.
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Borda
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics of Evangelisches Krankenhaus Castrop-Rauxel, Castrop-Rauxel, Germany.
authors.forename: Heinz-Dieter
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Grabbe
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D003704:Dementia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008559:Memantine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008875:Middle Aged; D056687:Off-Label Use
chemical_list: D008559:Memantine
keywords: Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome; alcohol-related dementia; antidementia agents; memantine