Quality of Life and the Effect of Memantine in Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinson's Disease Dementia

Aim: To investigate quality of life (QOL) and the effect of memantine treatment in patients with Lewy body dementias. Methods: A secondary analysis of a randomized controlled study in 70 patients with Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) or dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) over 24 weeks using caregiver-rated QOL-Alzheimer's disease (AD) in domains according to the WHO's classification of health. Results: Baseline QOL shows lower ratings for body functions over environmental factors in DLB/PDD. Treatment with memantine significantly improves life as a whole compared to placebo and improves total QOL, body function and structure. Conclusion: This study shows that memantine improves QOL in Lewy body dementias. We also demonstrate important QOL patterns which can be used in clinical practice. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel