Alzheimer's drug Ebixa/Namenda XR (Lundbeck) fails to reduce significant agitation

Ebixa/Namenda XR (memantine), from Lundbeck, does not ease clinically significant agitation in patients with Alzheimers Disease. A new study finds that while the drug does improve cognitive functioning and neuropsychiatric symptoms such as delusion, mood and anxiety, it is no more effective in reducing significant agitation than a placebo. It looked at 153 nursing home residents and hospital inpatients with severe Alzheimer's from September 2007 to May 2010. Half were given memantine, and half received a placebo. The researchers reported signficant improvement in cognitive function and for overall neuropsychiatric symptoms for the group given memantine, but no statistically significant difference in terms of the severe agitation that was the primary focus of the study. This is the first randomized controlled trial designed to assess the effectiveness of the drug for significant agitation in Alzheimer's patients. Results were published in PLoS ONE on May 2: "Efficacy of memantine for agitation in Alzheimer's dementia: a randomized double-blind placebo controlled trial" by C. Fox et al.