Memantine and Intensive Speech-Language Therapy in Aphasia

Summary

* Aphasia, the loss or impairment of language caused by brain damage, is one of the most devastating cognitive impairments of stroke. Aphasia can be treated with combination of speech-language therapy and drugs. Conventional speech-language therapy in chronic aphasic subjects is of little help and several drugs have been studied with limited success. Therefore other therapeutic strategies are warranted. * Recent data suggest that drugs (memantine) acting on the brain chemical glutamate may help the recovery of cognitive deficits, included language, in subjects with vascular dementia. The present study examines the safety profile and efficacy of memantine paired with intensive language therapy in subjects with stroke-related chronic aphasia (more than 1 yr. of evolution).

Timeline

Start

2005-03

Primary completion

2007-11

Completion

2007-11

Publications

• Background Orgogozo JM, Rigaud AS, Stoffler A, Mobius HJ, Forette F. Efficacy and safety of memantine in patients with mild to moderate vascular dementia: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial (MMM 300). Stroke. 2002 Jul;33(7):1834-9. doi: 10.1161/01.str.0000020094.08790.49.
• Background Pantoni L. Treatment of vascular dementia: evidence from trials with non-cholinergic drugs. J Neurol Sci. 2004 Nov 15;226(1-2):67-70. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2004.09.014.
• Background Roman G. Perspectives in the treatment of vascular dementia. Drugs Today (Barc). 2000 Sep;36(9):641-53. doi: 10.1358/dot.2000.36.9.593781.

Drugs

Indications