Constipation memantine

The side effects of memantine are generally mild and include headache, dizziness, and constipation. Memantine is started at an initial dose of 5 mg each morning and is increased to 5 mg twice daily after 1 week. The maximum dose of memantine is 10 mg taken twice daily. A recent study indicates that memantine works syner-gistically with cholinesterase inhibitors (see Section 10.5.5), and it has quickly become routine clinical practice to coadminister memantine with one of these agents. 

Adverse reactions associated with memantine include constipation, confusion, dizziness, headache, coughing, and hypertension. These adverse effects are similar to those experienced with ChE inhibitors. Extra monitoring should be done if memantine is given concurrently with a ChE inhibitor. 

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