Results from the first patients enrolled in an international study to assess whether combining two different drugs commonly used to treat patients with movement disorders and memory loss are expected shortly.
One of the centres taking part – Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) –successfully recruited 11 participants into the study for patients diagnosed with either:
- Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), where abnormal deposits in the brain called Lewy bodies can lead to problems with thinking, movement, behaviour and mood.
- Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD), which affects half of patients already diagnosed with PD causing changes in memory and thinking that become severe enough to impact daily living.
People with DLB/PDD have a worse qualify of life, more complex symptoms, higher care costs and are more sensitive to medications than those with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), the most common form of dementia. Although DLB and PDD have similar symptoms – memory loss and movement disorders – diagnosis is based upon the order in which the symptoms first appear. DLB patients experience memory impairment before movement disorders; in patients with PDD, it is the other way round.
Currently, patients with DLB/PDD are treated with Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors (AChEI) to improve their day-to-day functioning and thinking. Another drug – memantine – is commonly used to treat confusion in people with AD.
We want to see if combining memantine with AChEI will improve the quality of life or affect the outcomes for these two groups of patients
CPFT’s Clinical Research Nurse, Blessing Ushie
“We know that during COVID, GPs prescribed memantine for people with memory loss that they couldn’t physically see because it is safe and doesn’t need rigorous monitoring.
But there’s no research or knowledge to show whether memantine may be a helpful treatment for people living with DLB or PDD.”
Patients over the age of 55 years with DLB/PDD who are already taking AChEI have been recruited into two groups. One group is taking memantine and the other a placebo, or inactive drug. All patients are followed up for a year to assess any changes in their symptoms and/or disease. Neither they, nor their clinicians, know who is taking the active treatment.
Blessing has seen the first patient that she enrolled into this study for the last time: “I looked at what their disease meant for them and their quality of life. It gives me a great sense of fulfilment to help patients through this study."
I would like to say a very big thank you to all my participants for their commitment and trust. There are enormous benefits for patients taking part in research.
"They feel that they are doing something positive despite living with a challenging condition,” she comments, adding that participants can also access medical staff 24 hours a day.
Blessing stresses that research proposals are carefully scrutinised and ethical considerations taken into account before being given the go ahead and adds: “With research, I am actively seeking to benefit humankind. I am providing care that goes beyond healing just one person. Research is the only way that we can beat disease.”