Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), typically featuring impaired cognition and attention.SLE autoantibodies may target certain brain features including the so-called NMDA receptor, leading investigators to test the NMDA receptor antagonist memantine in SLE patients with such symptoms.Memantine led to modestly greater improvements in scores on a standard neuropsychiatric assessment tool compared with placebo after 12 weeks of treatment in a small randomized trial.
Cognitive dysfunction in people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) -- aka "lupus brain fog" -- was significantly relieved with the Alzheimer's dementia drug memantine in a small placebo-controlled trial.
Twelve weeks of memantine treatment led to a median improvement of 8 points on the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), compared with a median 5-point increase with placebo in the 43-patient trial (P=0.032), according to Jillian Rhoads, PhD, of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues.
Significantly more patients in the memantine arm gained at least 8 RBANS points -- the standard threshold for clinically meaningful improvement -- with treatment (12 vs 9 with placebo, P=0.047), the investigators reported in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
