This paper evaluates memantine as an augmentation therapy for treatment of anxiety. Memantine quickly binds to and blocks NMDA receptors, which can counteract toxicity caused by too much excitation (excitotoxicity), and thereby prevents programmed cell death (apoptosis) [4]. It is also used “off-label” to treat dementia, ADHD, PTSD, and other psychiatric conditions. It works by decreasing abnormal activity in the brain. This paper evaluates memantine as an augmentation therapy for treatment of anxiety. Then when I realized it was sort of delayed reaction I took it that night. ), fatigue 20% ( The recommendations are personalized based on YOUR DNA. When memantine was combined with methadone, the two medications reportedly decreased the total amount of methadone needed to curb individuals’ craving for opioids over the course of 12 weeks of treatment [32]. It is taken by mouth. This has only been studied in cell lines where memantine does bind to D2 receptors; however, its action is very short-lived, making it difficult to measure. Mean dose was 14 mg/d (range 5–20 mg/d). Seven patients completed the trial fully. This was assessed using the Clinician’s Interview-Based Impression of Change Plus Caregiver Input (CIBIC-Plus), the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study Activities of Daily Living Inventory modified for severe dementia (SDCS-ADLsev), and the Severe Impairment Battery, all of which are used by clinicians to measure diverse aspects of cognitive function and behavior in Alzheimer’s patients [1]. SelfHacked has the strictest sourcing guidelines in the health industry and we almost exclusively link to medically peer-reviewed studies, usually on PubMed. In 28 patients with refractory migraines, memantine taken daily reportedly helped to decrease the number of days with a headache from 22 per month to 16 days per month [30]. This also suggests that this mechanism may not be central to the drug’s main therapeutic effects [7]. This is most commonly (though not necessarily always) caused by long-term alcohol abuse, and is often difficult to treat. Only a medical professional is properly qualified to determine the specific dosage that will be ideal for any individual case – and it is important to always discuss treatment plans with your doctor, and to follow their directions as carefully and accurately as you can to ensure the best treatment. Your email address will not be published. Our science team must pass long technical science tests, difficult logical reasoning and reading comprehension tests. We have written this post for informational purposes only, and our goal is solely to inform people about the science behind memantine’s effects, mechanisms, and current medical uses. At this point, adding memantine to Ms. A’s regimen of clomipramine (300 mg/day) and sulpiride (400 mg/day) was suggested, and she signed informed consent after explanation of this off-label therapy. Infantile nystagmus (IN) often occurs in the first 3 to 6 months of life. Memantine is similar to control in dysphoria, anxiety/phobia, euphoria, apathy, and eating disturbance.Conclusion: The meta-analysis suggest that memantine has benefits for the treatment of most of the behavioral disturbances in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Memantine may be an effective augmentation therapy in patients with anxiety who remain symptomatic despite adequate treatment with conventional antidepressant anxiolytics. Memantine was started at 5 mg/day and titrated to 20 mg/day within 2 weeks. It is important to note that memantine and other Alzheimer’s drugs do not cure Alzheimer’s – they only slow some of the cognitive decline commonly seen in this disease. Align your health hacks with your genes for optimal health & cognitive function. Note: The information in this section describes typical dose information for medical applications of memantine. Twelve weeks of memantine was reported to slightly decrease anxiety in 7 patients with GAD [22, 23]. The analysis included double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trials of memantine in MDD and BD. One case study of a bipolar patient resistant to conventional treatment reported that 10 mg/day of memantine for 4 weeks resulted in a complete disappearance of manic symptoms [20]. It is less preferred than acetylcholinesterase inhibitors such as donepezil. Learn which genes are key players in cognitive function and what you can do to optimize them. Conclusion. Memantine also helps with severe dementia as well as dementia of WKS (Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome), but the results have not been as impressive as they are with vascular dementia. In a randomized controlled trial in 250 patients, memantine for 28 weeks slowed cognitive and functional decline compared to placebo in moderate-to-severe Alzheimer’s. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on whether memantine was beneficial for the treatment of depressive symptoms in major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD). Another study reported a slight improvement or no benefit of memantine in DLB [39]. What does the science have to say about how it works and what it does? Too little or too much glutamate can lead to cell death. Memantine has a small beneficial effect in people with moderate-to-severe AD. All patients in this paper suffered from either social anxiety disorder (SAD) or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Consequently, there is a large pool of high-quality evidence that supports memantine’s use in moderate-to-severe cases of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Week 3: 15 mg orally/day (Administer 5 mg and 10 mg as separate doses.) In a study (randomized controlled trial) of 166 patients with severe dementia in either Alzheimer’s or vascular dementia, the group treated with memantine were reported to show better functional outcomes, and were less dependent on their caregivers, after 12 weeks of treatment with memantine [13]. Bipolar disorder is a mental disorder characterized by periods of both elevated mood (mania) and depression, and some evidence exists that suggests that memantine may be helpful in treating some of its associated symptoms. Donepezil is another medication commonly used to treat AD. Forty children with ADHD (double-blind randomized controlled trial) were treated with either methylphenidate, a drug used to treat ADHD, or memantine, for 6 weeks. Memantine may improve the ability to think and remember or may slow the loss of these abilities in p… The most commonly reported side effects of memantine include constipation, nausea, and headache. One of the most common “off-label” uses of memantine is to treat other (i.e. Acquired fixational pendular nystagmus (APN) is a type of eye condition where eyes make repetitive uncontrolled movements that appear as excessive motion, and which blurs the patient’s vision. Memantine has been a godsend for my social anxiety. Information is shared for educational purposes only. In the context of dementia treatment, the specific form of dementia that has the most evidence to support it is vascular dementia. Some guidelines recommended to start patients off at 5mg once daily, and increase (“titrate”) the dose in increments of 5mg every week until reaching a dose of 20mg per day [13, 1, 44]. … Therefore, these drugs are useful for improving the daily functioning and quality-of-life of Alzheimer’s patients; but they nevertheless do not reverse the course of the disease once it has started, nor do they fully prevent the disease from progressing over time. Common side effects include headache, constipation, sleepiness, and dizziness. - posted in Brain Health: This is the most horrid anxiety I have ever had. Most studies support 20mg a day (or 10mg twice daily) to be the most effective dose [1]. My wife was recently prescribed Memantine for headaches. We are dedicated to providing the most scientifically valid, unbiased, and comprehensive information on any given topic. According to studies, “memantine is well tolerated” and only around 1% of patients suffer from memantine side effects. This GABA-glutamate balance (when GABA is low and Glutamate is normal to high) is also felt to play a role in the development of generalized or social anxiety disorders. Methods A systematic review of articles published in the last ten years, in Portuguese, English and Spanish, was performed in Medline, other places of Evidence Medicine and Index of Portuguese Databases, using the following MESH terms: memantine, treatment and anxiety … Currently there are just five medications – including memantine – which have been approved for the treatment of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s. After 28 weeks of memantine treatment, 16 WKS patients were reported to show improvements in both thinking and overall functioning when compared to the placebo group (randomized controlled trial) [14]. Methods. Typical adverse events included nausea and headache. Memory disorders are prevalent in about 40 to 60% of patients with MS. Memantine was not effective at reducing cognitive deficits, and patients who tried memantine had more adverse effects such as fatigue [40]. male and female outpatients aged 18–65 with a DSM-IV diagnosis of either generalized or social anxiety disorder based on MINI diagnostic interview; rating of at least “moderately ill” (score of 4) on the Clinical Global Impressions of Severity (CGI-S) scale and score of at least 10 on HAM-A and 5 on HADS anxiety subscale; failure to respond adequately to trial of conventional anxiolytic; adequate treatment duration was considered 4 weeks at therapeutic dose; adequate response is defined as an improvement of ≥50% in symptoms of anxiety on current anxiolytic therapy, as measured subjectively by patients or objectively by physician; stable on current psychiatric medication for ≥6 weeks prior to study entry. On the other hand, if you reduce glutamate and, presumably, one of its precursors, glutamine, you run the risk of muscle wasting. Twelve weeks of memantine was reported to slightly decrease anxiety in 7 patients with GAD [22, 23]. Our team comprises of trained MDs, PhDs, pharmacists, qualified scientists, and certified health and wellness specialists. Memantine has been reported to increase the concentration of sertraline (an antidepressant) in the brains of mice. Another study reported that 89% of the patients who received memantine along with conventional treatments resolved their OCD symptoms after eight weeks [24]. Dementia of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (WKS) is dementia caused by vitamin B1 deficiency. There is the possibility of experiencing adverse side-effects or interactions: therefore it is important that you are continually monitored by your doctor while taking memantine. Given memantine’s ability to lower glutamate activity, it may be able to also lower anxiety without the need for a sedative medication. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are commonly used for the treatment of anxiety disorders; however, complete resolution of symptoms may only be seen in approximately 50% of patients [2]. Some studies reported benefit, one case documenting a 100% response [24]. Remission was defined as an HAM-A total score ≤7. 15 consecutive partially responding anxious patients were treated with adjunctive memantine for 10 weeks. Its use in other illnesses such as bipolar disorder and autism is currently being explored. Memantine as augmentation therapy (mainly to SSRIs) was well tolerated. Ms. Finally, memantine may activate dopamine D2 receptors. Some researchers have therefore hypothesized that combining memantine with antidepressants could enhance their potency and effects, although much more clinical research would be needed in order for this to become a part of standard medical practice [43]. It is generally well-tolerated, and does not appear to cause an unusually high rate of negative side-effects [36]. Thomas L. Schwartz, Umar A. Siddiqui, Shafi Raza, "Memantine as an Augmentation Therapy for Anxiety Disorders", Case Reports in Psychiatry, vol. Mean age was 44 years (range 26–63). Memantine is commonly sold under the trade name Namenda. Comparisons to baseline in HAM-A and HADS were performed. Memantine partially blocks N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors' glutamate channels located in the CNS. Memantine has warnings in those with kidney and liver dysfunction or impairment [3]. As such, these data are open to referral and investigator bias. memantine in a patient with a history of seizures or epilepsy. Methadone is another medication used to help individuals with opioid use disorder. Memantine the Unknown Drug Tolerance Prevention Chemical Memantine has had been a well kept secret for drug tolerance prevention. One patient, 10%, also reported ankle edema. The FDA has officially approved memantine for the treatment of certain cases of Alzheimer’s disease, and this is the most typical medical use of memantine. Patients with at least one postbaseline efficacy measurement were included in the efficacy dataset and analyzed using the last-observation-carried-forward (LOCF) technique. Other reported side effects include [37]: For patients with severe liver or kidney impairments, clinicians have been advised to prescribe a lower dosage of memantine accordingly. Memantine is a prescription medication that needs to be approved and prescribed by your doctor. Given that memantine has met FDA approval for medical use, the majority of scientific evidence supports the overall safety and effectiveness of memantine. FDA has approved memantine, as a noncompetitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor antagonist for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease [6]. The mean MMSE and NPI scores were 22.6±3.4 and 13.8±12.9, respectively. When memantine was used to treat APN in patients with MS it resulted in complete cessation of the nystagmus [26]. Total daily doses of memantine were divided between morning and evening and taken with food. However, despite this treatment, all were considered to be partial responders and not felt to be in remission in regards to their anxious symptoms. Joe Cohen won the genetic lottery of bad genes. Our e-book, How To Solve Procrastination, Forgetfulness and Lack of Mental Clarity Using Your Genes has helped hundreds of people get rid of their brain fog and improve their cognitive function. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of memantine in OCD and GAD, and to probe relative effects on OCD and anxiety symptoms. memantine-like substances that show putative anti-proliferative and autophagic effects on several glioma and medulloblastoma cell lines through NMDAR1.18,19 In a phase I trial,20 memantine was found to be safe when combined with temozolomide, mefloquine, and metformin in patients with glioblastoma. 1) Slows the Progression of Moderate-to-Severe Alzheimer’s Disease, 5) May Decrease Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), 6) May Decrease Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), 7) May Reduce the Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia, 2) May Help Treat Migraines and Headaches, 3) May Help with Short-Term Treatment of Substance Use Disorders, 4) May Protect Against Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, 5) May Delay Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Some evidence supports the use of memantine in the treatment of PTSD. Eight animal groups were used (n = 6 - 8/group), of which three groups received different doses of memantine (1, 2.5, and 5 mg/kg; ip) 30 min before being placed in CB for 60 min while the apparatus was off . It is a primarily known for being a drug treatment for nerve pain as well as being an anticonvulsant, or epileptic drug. Generalised anxiety disorder is the most common late-life psychiatric disorder. A pilot open label prospective study of memantine monotherapy in adults with ADHD. Some evidence suggests that memantine may have potential as a complementary medication to help treat addiction and other substance use disorders (meaning that it is used together with other, more “conventional” drugs – and not used just on its own). Memantine was not more effective at reducing muscle spasms in MS patients than placebo [42]. 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