Memantine belongs to a class of drugs called NMDA receptor antagonists. A class of drugs is a group of medications that work in a similar way. These drugs are often used to treat similar conditions. People with the disease may be overexposed to the chemical glutamate. Memantine works by blocking the receptors in the brain that glutamate would normally bind to.
This decreases the harmful effect of glutamate in the brain and may help improve your symptoms of dementia. Memantine oral tablet can cause mild or serious side effects. The following list contains some of the key side effects that may occur while taking memantine.
This list does not include all possible side effects. For more information on the possible side effects of memantine or tips on how to deal with a troubling side effect, talk with your doctor or pharmacist.
If these effects are mild, they may go away within a few days or a couple of weeks. Call your doctor right away if you have serious side effects. Serious side effects and their symptoms can include the following:. Memantine oral tablet can interact with several other medications. Different interactions can cause different effects. For instance, some can interfere with how well a drug works, while others can cause increased side effects.
Below is a list of medications that can interact with memantine. This list does not contain all drugs that may interact with memantine. Before taking memantine, be sure to tell your doctor and pharmacist about all prescription, over-the-counter, and other drugs you take. Also tell them about any vitamins, herbs, and supplements you use. Sharing this information can help you avoid potential interactions.
If you have questions about drug interactions that may affect you, ask your doctor or pharmacist. Taking these drugs with memantine can increase the amount of memantine in your body. This can lead to more side effects. Examples of these drugs include:. Taking memantine with sodium bicarbonate, which can be used to treat heartburn, can increase the amount of memantine in your body. Amantadine works in a similar way to memantine. The absence of a warning for a given drug or drug combination in no way should be construed to indicate that the drug or drug combination is safe, effective or appropriate for any given patient.
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Updated visitor guidelines. You are here Home » donepezil and memantine. Top of the page. What is the most important information I should know about donepezil and memantine? What is donepezil and memantine? Donepezil and memantine may also be used for purposes not listed in this medication guide. What should I discuss with my healthcare provider before taking donepezil and memantine?
You should not use this medicine if you are allergic to donepezil or memantine. How should I take donepezil and memantine? Most of the trials studying the effects of these drugs have been quite short typically six months even though dementia usually lasts for years. The drugs can have unwanted side effects in some people.
There is uncertainty about their long-term effects and about how useful they are for severe dementia, with different countries making different recommendations. Therefore it can be difficult for doctors and patients to decide if and when these drugs should be stopped once they have been started.
In this review, we aimed to summarise the best evidence about whether stopping cholinesterase inhibitors or memantine was beneficial or harmful to people with dementia who had been taking them for at least two months. We searched up to October for trials which had: recruited people with dementia who were taking a cholinesterase inhibitor or memantine, or both; divided them randomly into a group of patients who continued treatment and a group of patients who stopped treatment; and compared what happened in the two groups.
We found seven trials participants to include in the review. Six trials investigated the effects of stopping a cholinesterase inhibitor and one trial investigated stopping either a cholinesterase inhibitor specifically, donepezil or memantine. We decided not to pool its results with the other six trials. Effects were measured over different periods of time in different trials.
We looked separately at effects in the first 2 months short term , between 3 and 11 months medium term , and after a year or more long term. When we looked at the effect on thinking skills and memory, we found that, compared to stopping treatment, continuing treatment with a cholinesterase inhibitor may be beneficial in the short term and medium term and is probably beneficial in the long term. For ability to carry out daily activities, there may be little or no effect in the short term, and the effect in the medium term was very uncertain, but there is probably a benefit to continuing treatment over the longer term.
For mood and behavioural problems, continuing treatment may have benefits in the short term and medium term, but not in the long term. There was very little evidence about effects on quality of life or on the likelihood of moving to a care home to live. There was not enough evidence for us to see whether results differed with the severity of dementia.
Do not save this mixture to use at a later time. If you are taking the oral solution, follow the manufacturer's directions to measure your dose using the oral syringe that is supplied with the medication. Slowly squirt the medication from the syringe into a corner of your mouth and swallow it.
Do not mix the medication with any other liquid. After you take your medication, follow the manufacturer's directions to re-seal the bottle and clean the oral syringe. Ask your pharmacist or doctor if you have any questions about how to use this medication. Your doctor will probably start you on a low dose of memantine and gradually increase your dose, not more than once every week.
Memantine helps to control the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease but does not cure it. Continue to take memantine even if you feel well.
Do not stop taking memantine without talking to your doctor. This medication may be prescribed for other uses; ask your doctor or pharmacist for more information.
Take the missed dose as soon as you remember it. However, if it is almost time for the next dose, skip the missed dose and continue your regular dosing schedule. Do not take a double dose to make up for a missed one. If you forget to take memantine for several days, call your doctor before you start to take the medication again. Memantine may cause other side effects. Call your doctor if you have any unusual problems while taking this medication.
Keep this medication in the container it came in, tightly closed, and out of reach of children.
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