I've followed this site for around two years but never commented. My wife, who is only 66 years old, and I divorced about 2 years ago over her strange behavior. Everything was an argument. She was a school teacher and for a year saying she had to stay til 8 and 9 o'clock to finish her work. I thought she was having an affair or something and trying to run me off. I told her if she didn't top I was getting a divorce She didn't stop. I got a divorce. A year later we discovered she has White Matter Disease. I prayed and prayed and researched and researched knowing being married would be more than difficult. However, her children basically stuck her in a tiny rat hole apartment even though she had money for more. So I remarried her to take care of her. I love and adore her, of course. White Matter Disease doesn't have a DSM coding for the doctor to bill so he called it Vascular Dementia since it can turn into Vascular Dementia. So to your point: Memantine. Her Neurologist put her on a couple of things. Donepezil and Memantine being 2 of them. The Memantine has not given her any side affects and, in fact, she says it helps her. It's the one thing she makes sure she takes. My daughter's a nutritionist and when this came up she spent countless hours and phone calls and research concerning nutrition for Vascular Dementia. There are six things i try to do everyday with my wife and vitamins is one of them. Now remember everyone is different and there's no absolute in any of this. However, the thing that has help my wife most is Magnesium L-Threonate. My daughter suggested it as part of a daily vitamin regimen to help my wife's memory and it made a noticeable difference. I'm a lawyer, so I thought I'll try that and I can tell you, I make sure I take it in the morning and at night without fail. I've seen a difference in me. I've fought some big bad battles, even the Mafia for a couple of years in court and I can tell you this is the hardest thing I've ever done and my wife is fairly self sufficient. I have a great, loving, caring family but there is no way they understand what happens inside these four walls. I've spent over a thousand hours researching, counseling, talking to others and reading this Mayo Connect and this harder than hard. One lady on here a year ago said you'll be living two lives and only half of one of those will be yours. Nevertheless back to Memantine, the Neurologists do their best but nobody really knows what to do or what will happen. For a lot of it we're on our own. My best and prayers to you.