Memantine Use and Cognitive Decline in Huntington's Disease: An Enroll‐HD Study

BACKGROUND: Memantine is an N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist that is used to treat moderate to severe Alzheimer's Dementia (AD) and has been speculated to provide clinical benefits in Huntington's disease (HD). OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness of memantine on the trajectory of cognitive decline in individuals with manifest HD. METHODS: Using participants from the Enroll‐HD study, the primary analysis compared trajectories in cognition over a 5‐year period using linear mixed effect models of prevalent and incident memantine users who were propensity‐score‐matched with non‐users on measures of disease progression and demographics. RESULTS: In the primary analysis there were no significant differences in the trajectories between memantine users and non‐users on any primary outcomes of interest. CONCLUSIONS: Memantine use was not associated with any clinical benefit for individuals with manifest HD. Further studies are warranted to assess the impact of memantine on clinical outcomes in HD.