Efficacy of Memantine as Adjunct Therapy for Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children Aged <14 Years

BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a recent increase in prevalence. A timely appropriate treatment for the disorder may play a crucial role in improvements in behaviors, interactions, and communications in an individual's life. It appears that evaluation of therapeutic approaches to the patients is essential and of importance. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of memantine as adjunct therapy in children with ASD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This randomized single-blind clinical trial included 60 children with ASD aged <14. The children undergoing applied behavior analysis (ABA) were divided into two groups of placebo and memantine (5 mg/day: a half of tablet in the morning and a half in the evening). After a 3-month course, improvements in symptoms of ASD were evaluated in both groups based on Gilliam autism rating scale. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS (version 20) using independent samples t-test, paired samples t-test, Chi-squared test and Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: Both groups were similar in baseline characteristics including age, gender, and ASD symptoms (P > 0.05) but post intervention, total scores of ASD symptoms in both groups of memantine (mean score(1) =95.20 ± 14.49; mean score(2)=73.50 ± 9.81) and control group (mean score(before) = 91.50 ± 14.35; mean score(after) = 89.63 ± 13.95) showed a decrease which was only significant in intervention group (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Accordingly, memantine administration as adjunct therapy can be more effective in improvement of ASD symptoms in children than ABA alone. Thus, it can be considered as a new selective adjunct therapy.