Memantine Augmentation of Antidepressants

Summary

This study is evaluating the efficacy and safety of the drug memantine (trade name NAMENDA) as an augmentation agent for the treatment of depression in people who are not fully responding to antidepressant medications.

Timeline

Start

2006-06

Primary completion

2011-12

Completion

2011-12

Outcome

Missed primary endpoint

paper Participants receiving memantine did not show a statistically or clinically significant change in MADRS scores compared to placebo, either over the entire study PMID 24229746 ↗

paper β = 0.133, favoring placebo, P = .74 PMID 24229746 ↗

Publications

• Background Berman RM, Cappiello A, Anand A, Oren DA, Heninger GR, Charney DS, Krystal JH. Antidepressant effects of ketamine in depressed patients. Biol Psychiatry. 2000 Feb 15;47(4):351-4. doi: 10.1016/s0006-3223(99)00230-9.
• Background Moryl E, Danysz W, Quack G. Potential antidepressive properties of amantadine, memantine and bifemelane. Pharmacol Toxicol. 1993 Jun;72(6):394-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0773.1993.tb01351.x.
• Background Oquendo MA, Baca-Garcia E, Kartachov A, Khait V, Campbell CE, Richards M, Sackeim HA, Prudic J, Mann JJ. A computer algorithm for calculating the adequacy of antidepressant treatment in unipolar and bipolar depression. J Clin Psychiatry. 2003 Jul;64(7):825-33. doi: 10.4088/jcp.v64n0714.
• Background Papp M, Moryl E. Antidepressant activity of non-competitive and competitive NMDA receptor antagonists in a chronic mild stress model of depression. Eur J Pharmacol. 1994 Sep 22;263(1-2):1-7. doi: 10.1016/0014-2999(94)90516-9.
• Background Rogoz Z, Skuza G, Kusmider M, Wojcikowski J, Kot M, Daniel WA. Synergistic effect of imipramine and amantadine in the forced swimming test in rats. Behavioral and pharmacokinetic studies. Pol J Pharmacol. 2004 Mar-Apr;56(2):179-85.
• Background Skolnick P, Layer RT, Popik P, Nowak G, Paul IA, Trullas R. Adaptation of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors following antidepressant treatment: implications for the pharmacotherapy of depression. Pharmacopsychiatry. 1996 Jan;29(1):23-6. doi: 10.1055/s-2007-979537.
• Dean RL, Hurducas C, Hawton K, Spyridi S, Cowen PJ, Hollingsworth S, Marquardt T, Barnes A, Smith R, McShane R, Turner EH, Cipriani A. Ketamine and other glutamate receptor modulators for depression in adults with unipolar major depressive disorder. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2021 Sep 12;9(9):CD011612. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD011612.pub3.
• Smith EG, Deligiannidis KM, Ulbricht CM, Landolin CS, Patel JK, Rothschild AJ. Antidepressant augmentation using the N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist memantine: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. J Clin Psychiatry. 2013 Oct;74(10):966-73. doi: 10.4088/JCP.12m08252.

Drugs

Evaluation	Drug	Modality	Dose	Route
Subject	Memantine	Unknown	20 mg	Oral

Indications