Objective: There is only little evidence for memantine induced dyskinesia in Alzheimer’s disease. We present a patient with Alzheimer’s disease who developed choreatic dyskinesia as a result of therapeutic doses of memantine.

Background: Memantine is an uncompetitive NMDA(N-methy-D-aspartic acid)- receptor antagonist and probably also have a dopaminergic effect by acting on D2High receptors. There is only little evidence for memantine induced dyskinesia in Alzheimer’s disease. In the reported cases dyskinesia was caused by increased daily doses of memantine or by its interaction with other drugs causing different pharmacokinetic characteristics of memantine.

Method: We present a woman who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 74 years. Neuropsychological testing showed moderately severe dementia with MMSE score of 15. Treatment with memantine was started with maintenance dose of 20mg per day. Three years later she was admitted to the hospital due to subacute development of choreatic dyskinesia with intermittent head drop and prominent postural instability.

Results: After excluding other causes of acute/subacute chorea, treatment with memantine was terminated. Dyskinesia slowly resolved within several weeks.

Conclusion: This case report suggests a possible development of choreatic dyskinesia as a result of therapeutic doses of memantine. This study was supported by grant projects from the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic – AZV 15-31984A and AZV NV18-04-00346, by European Regional Development Fund – Project ENOCH (No. Z.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000868) and by Institutional Support MZ CR – RVO FNOL 2019

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/memantine-induced-dyskinesia-in-alzheimers-disease/