Open Label Pilot Study of the Effects of Memantine on FDG-PET in Frontotemporal Dementia
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2012-06-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Memantine has been approved for use in Alzheimer's disease. Its mechanism of action raises
questions of whether it can also be effective for non-Alzheimer's dementias such as
frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which currently has no disease-modifying treatment.
This is an open-label study to probe the effects of memantine in 15 outpatients diagnosed
with FTD, as shown objectively by comparing PET scans performed before and after use of the
medication. The specific type of PET scan, FDG-PET, allows the investigators to gauge the
effects of memantine on cortical activity levels. The investigators hypothesize that subjects
on memantine will show normalization of cortical metabolic activity.