Hi.. just wondered if anyone knows or have heard of this medication.. Mom's doc gave her these to try. She is to take 5mg for 1-3 weeks and then 1 week at 10mg.. she is scared to take this due to anytype of side effects it may contain. Thanks for any information that you might have.
Lynda

Hi Lynda, Memantine (Namenda) is used to improve cognition (thought and memory) in Alzheimer's. Most of the studies that I've seen show improvement for people with AD who have moderate to severe dementia. I guess there is some "anecdotal" evidence out there that it may help LBD too. I haven't seen any clinical trials investigating that though. If your Mom is worried about taking it just let her know if might help her memory. There are no drugs as far as I know that are specifically used to treat LBD or are approved specifically for LBD by the FDA. Generally the approach is if it "looks like" AD, then try an AD drug. Mom's MD had once told me that there were clinical trials looking at a combo of Aricept and Namenda in LBD, but I couldn't find them anywhere.

Lynda, Frank is on Nemenda, he started with the starter pack like you mentioned. It replaced Exelon and there seemed to be a bit of improvement, and then Aricept was added and again a small improvement. Nothing to write home about, but no side effects.
It might be worth a try, just watch for carefully.
Good Luck

Lynda, I have no direct experience with namenda but I remembered reading a big thread about the topic on this website. If you scroll down on this "Treatment Options" discussion you'll see one titled "Memantine/Namenda" that even has a poll. I'll bet you can find a lot of good material there. You could also just do a search under namenda.

Hey Lynda - my dad, with whatever his health issues actually are (just pick a few since we've had so many diagnoses!) has been on Aricept and Namenda for about 7 weeks now. His confusion, speech and memory are better more days. This weeks he's had 4 good days and 3 not so good days while I was there. This is a lot better than what we've had in previous months so I am glad they put him on this and cannot imagine why he wasn't started on it a while ago.
The downside is when he is having a good day and his thinking is clear, he is more depressed and frustrated because he knows how bad off he is, and asks me why he is like this. LYnn