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A case of apathy due to frontotemporal dementia responsive to memantine
Kira A Links1, Sandra E Black, Ariel Graff-Guerrero
1Baycrest, Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Objective:
To study the effect of memantine on apathy, a common symptom of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).
Design:
The patient underwent an off-label trial of memantine with behavioral inventories and [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scans performed at baseline, 7 weeks and 6 months.
Subject:
The patient was a 66-year-old male whose main manifestation of bvFTD was affective, behavioral and cognitive apathy.
Intervention:
The patient began memantine at an oral dose of 5 mg per morning and titrated up by 5 mg per week to the maintenance dose of 10 mg PO bid.
Results:
Informants reported reduction of the apathy. The insula and cerebellum, both involved in the salience network, showed improved metabolism.
Conclusion:
Further study to correlate the effects of memantine on apathy and the salience network in bvFTD are warranted.
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